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The 4th ICEM World Congress in Bangkok in 2007 mandated that the ICEM develop a policy on sustainability as a basis for future initiatives, including discussions with employers, governments, and other Global Union Federations (GUFs). An initial meeting of a Working Group toward this end occurred early in 2008, and it established some parameters for ICEM positions and created the basis for development of an initial discussion paper. 
 
Last week, on 14 April, this Working Group reconvened in Geneva to review and comment on the discussion paper. Based on their deliberations, the paper will be revised and will become a draft policy for submission to the ICEM Executive Committee on 23 June 2009. 
 
Representatives from all ICEM Sectors and Regions were invited. The meeting was chaired by Lars Myhre of Norway's Industi-Energi (IE). Other participants included Ivan Mokhnachuk and Victor Miachin of Russia's mining union, Rosugleprof; Jan Str&oslash;mme of IE; Dave Shier of the Canadian Power Workers Union (PWU); Alfons de Potter, Belgium's CSC Energie Chimie; Marc Blanc, France's F&eacute;d&eacute;ration Chimie Energie, CFDT; Ralf Bartels of Germany's IGBCE; Anabella Rosemberg, representing the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC); and Ana Belen Sanchez of the ILO. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda was also a participant. 

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In general, the Work Group expressed satisfaction with the ICEM's initial discussion paper. The group suggested that the final ICEM policy needs to clearly express the viewpoint of an industrial union federation on all aspects of sustainability. 
 
Participants also pointed out that opportunities for a new focus and new dialogue between governments, employers, and unions &ndash; as the drive towards sustainability takes shape &ndash; must not be overlooked. In that regard, all agreed that the recent financial collapse has opened opportunities for discussions that might not have been possible a year ago. 
 
The role of energy in development, social security, and sustainable jobs were crucial issues to the Working Group, and the ICEM must demand a balanced energy future that includes cleaner use of fossil fuels (including carbon capture and storage/sequestration), nuclear, and, of course, renewable energy sources. The future of energy must consider questions about access to energy and price fairness and stability. 
 
Pulp and paper, chemicals, rubber, and materials sectors all have their particular sustainability challenges, which the ICEM acknowledges. Finally, the Working Group reiterated that sustainable jobs must be decent jobs that recognize the principles of human rights, labour rights, and particularly the respect for the rights of women and other disadvantaged groups. 
 
Warda closed the meeting by explaining the next steps on sustainable development, which will include a draft policy incorporating input from the Working Group, acceptance of the final paper by the ICEM Executive in June, and a possible multi-GUFs&rsquo; conference on sustainable development sometime&nbsp;in the future.

ICEM Holds Second Work Group Meeting on Sustainable Development

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Every year, on April 28, the world commemorates workers killed, injured, or made ill as a result of their jobs. 
 
How many are there? Collecting good data on occupational injuries and deaths is very difficult. The most credible source of international statistics is the ILO. Their numbers are staggering. The ILO has estimated that globally, there are two million work-related deaths annually. That's more than 5,000 every day, and for every fatality, hundreds more injuries and illnesses occur. 
 
These numbers, as incredible as they seem, are generally believed to be gross underestimates. 
 
Fatalities are under reported by workers and employers. Often, an occupational fatality is not identified as such. Once reported, a fatality must be &quot;accepted&quot; or recognized by a country's regulatory authority or workers' compensation board to be counted among the statistics. In many jurisdictions, large numbers of workers are exempt from workers' compensation coverage. Data for injuries are even less reliable than for fatalities. 

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Worker deaths that are immediate and obvious tend to be recognized. Deaths due to illnesses that have an occupational origin are rarely recognized. Cancer is one of the biggest work-related killers, but rarely is it properly acknowledged. Relatively few occupational diseases are recorded in official statistics. 
 
Injury and illness data are notoriously subject to bias and methodological problems. Many workers' injuries, illnesses, and even fatalities, are simply never recorded. Workers' compensation assessments and insurance premiums are often based on these statistics, creating a huge financial incentive for employers to suppress or discourage the reporting of accidents. 
 
This is done in a number of ways, ranging from schemes that bring injured workers into the workplace so their injuries won't be counted as &quot;lost time,&quot; to sophisticated psychological techniques like &quot;behaviour-based&quot; safety programs. Threats of discipline or discharge following a reported accident are not uncommon. &quot;Post-incident drug-testing&quot; has been highly effective in causing workers to conceal injuries rather than risk a false-positive test result. 
 
In the days leading up to 28 April, many statistics will be quoted. Appalling as the numbers may be, the truth is probably far worse. 
 
In the end, 28 April is not about numbers, it is about people. Next week, on Tuesday, let us pause and remember those who paid for their livelihoods with their lives or their health. Then let us renew the fight for safe and healthy workplaces.

28 April: Day to Renew Fight for Safe and Healthy Worksites

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28 April is Workers&rsquo; Memorial Day, or more formally, the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers. It is the day that trade unions across the world mourn the dead, but pledge even harder to wage the fight for safe, healthy, and risk-free workplaces. 
 
The commemoration day is rooted in the Canadian labour movement, whose unions worked for several years before the country&rsquo;s Parliament in 1989 passed Bill C-223, adopting 28 April as the official &ldquo;Day of Mourning.&rdquo; While labour groups in several countries began commemorating the day soon thereafter, it became a global day of health and safety recognition and a vivid reminder of the ever-present risks and hazards inside worksites when the UN lit a Commemorative Candle in 1996 for the victims of the Kader toy factory fire in Thailand three years earlier. 
 
Some 188 mostly young women workers perished in that fire and another 500 were severely injured. Now, 20 countries officially recognize the day, with Croatia being the latest, moving in recent weeks to designate it the National Day of Occupational Safety and Health. 

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(The others: Argentina, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Greece, Luxembourg, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, and Venezuela.) 
 
The day also is marked by labour unions and workplace health and safety groups in over120 countries. It is more than just a memorial day to remember the estimated two million workers who die each year from workplace accidents, job-related injuries, or occupational illnesses. It is a day of renewal and action for positive change to make worksites safer and risk-free. 
 
ICEM trade union affiliates are encouraged to find an activity next week to take meaningful action. Use the day, for example, to work in your community and within your union to engage your government on ILO Convention 176, the Health and Safety in Mines Convention; or any of the other ILO Conventions which your government has not ratified, such as Convention 155, the Occupational Safety and Health Convention; No. 162, the Asbestos at Work Convention; No. 148, the Work Environment Convention; No. 174, the Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents Convention; No. 119, the Guarding of Machinery Convention; and No. 136, the Benzene Convention. Only through direct action will change occur.

28 April, Day of Mourning: History is Recent but Roots are Growing

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The union that won a long battle to represent Firestone Rubber Plantation workers in Liberia has now won a Labor Ministry-supervised vote to represent workers at ArcelorMittal&rsquo;s mining development in Liberia. 
 
On 11 April, ICEM-affiliated Forestry, Logging, and Industrial Workers&rsquo; Union of Liberia (FLIWUL), greatly assisted by the United Steelworkers (USW) of the US, easily beat a yellow union in a representation election that took place in Nimba County on the Liberian-Guinea-C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire border and at Buchanan, a port city on the Atlantic Coast. 
 
ArcelorMittal, the world&rsquo;s largest steel-maker, is undertaking a US$1.5 billion re-development of iron ore mining operations near Yekeba in Nimba County and a 250-kilometre railroad line to Buchanan. 
 
The union vote, however, encountered flagrant interference by a company official and a Liberian legislator, despite both an ICEM letter (found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/6%20letter%20to%20Bernard%20Fontana%20-%203%20Feb09.pdf">here</a>) and a USW letter warning ArcelorMittal not to interfere in the election. But an ArcelorMittal boss and a national lawmaker showed up in Buchanan several hours after voting began and demanded a halt to balloting. 

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FLIWUL activists in Harbel
On the eve of the vote, the yellow union used a radio broadcast to discourage workers from voting. Election observers also reported that whoever was behind this group had pressed members of the Liberian Parliament to intervene with the Labor Ministry to cancel the vote. 
 
The ArcelorMittal official was Arthur Massaquio, who earlier on 11 April was the company&rsquo;s designated election observer, but left the polling area soon after balloting began. When he returned several hours later, he was with Representative Gabriel Smith. The lawmaker began questioning workers on why they felt the urgency to have a union vote, before ordering workers back to work because he was canceling the election. 
 
Despite this, and the fact that several workers did leave the Buchanan polling area without voting, FLIWUL won the fair, government-supervised election. FLIWUL got 198 votes, the yellow union 19, and the &ldquo;no union&rdquo; option on the ballot received one. In Buchanan, the FLIWUL got 59 votes and the company union 15. The ICEM had an observer present for the vote through a designated representative from the Ghana Mineworkers&rsquo; Union. 
 
FLIWUL Secretary-General David Sackoh told the ICEM following the vote that an investigation into the Buchanan interruption is underway, but that he is confident the vote will stand. 
 
ArcelorMittal is developing Nimba County&rsquo;s one billion cubic-metre iron ore reserves in a 25-year concession that will see the Liberian government receive 30% of the net profits, plus 4.5% in royalty fees. Some 2,000 Liberian workers are expected to be employed in the mining enterprise and the rail link and port hub. This northern Liberia mining area was originally operated by the Liberian American Swedish Chemicals Company (LAMCO), but production ceased in 1989 with the outbreak of civil war.

Despite Interference, FLIWUL Wins Union Rights for ArcelorMittal Workers in Liberia

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As labour in Australia approaches 28 April next week, the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers, one mining company stands beneath the rest with a dismal safety record: BHP Billiton. 
 
In Western Australia&rsquo;s rich Pilbara mining section in the country&rsquo;s northwest, BHP has had five workers die over the past nine months, four less than have died in BHP employ in the region in the last nine years. Three of those deaths in recent months have been contract workers &ndash; employed by subsidiaries of BHP&rsquo;s primary contractor in the region, Leighton Holdings &ndash; while two were direct BHP workers. 
 
It is estimated that 75% of BHP&rsquo;s total workforce of 10,000 workers in the Pilbara are employed by contractors. On safety, one union official claimed BHP Billiton is less disciplined toward its contract employers than to its own workers. 
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Whether or not that changes might depend on an external safety audit being conducted after the most recent workplace tragedy, the 19 March death of a contract worker employed by Leighton&rsquo;s John Holland subsidiary. He was killed after falling off a piece of machinery at BHP&rsquo;s Mount Whaleback iron ore mine in Newman. 
 
But since that death, there have two near tragedies, the latest on 8 April when an iron ore truck struck a worker at BHP&rsquo;s Nelson Point operations in Port Hedland. The safety audit, mandated by Australia&rsquo;s Mines Safety and Inspection Act of 1994, means that stop-work orders were placed on 12 company operations late in March, interrupting production. 
 
BHP&rsquo;s recent industrial safety record has brought condemnation from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU). 
 
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s fine to put stop work notices on,&rdquo; stated CFMEU&rsquo;s Joe McDonald, quoted in the Kalgoorlie Miner, a regional newspaper. &ldquo;But they need to be extremely well enforced because BHP will still find ways around these notices.&rdquo; McDonald said he favours company prosecution when industrial deaths happen. 
 
The AMWU has discounted BHP&rsquo;s &ldquo;safety is a priority&rdquo; rhetoric, and has pushed hard for state regulators to conduct full and independent investigations. 
 
The AMWU publicly stated that such an inquiry is absolutely necessary following the second death in a matter of two weeks. On 24 February, a railroad track maintenance worker was killed on the job. The 56-year-old machine worker was killed when he was hit by a BHP train on the company&rsquo;s Tabba rail line near Port Hedland. 
 
Last year, two deaths occurred within nine days of one another at BHP Billiton&rsquo;s 85%-owned Yandi iron ore mine in the Pilbara. Both workers were employed by HWE Mining, another subsidiary of Leighton Holdings and a company that is BHP&rsquo;s exclusive mining contractor at Yandi. 
 
One of the workers, a 19-year-old, was crushed to death on 4 September 2008 when the small truck he was driving was crushed by a large haul vehicle. The other HWE employee died on 26 August in an industrial accident while he was changing a tyre. 
 
And less than a month earlier, on 29 July, a 52-year-old BHP worker was killed when a scissor lift toppled onto him while he was working in a locomotive repair shop at BHP&rsquo;s Port Hedland ore crushing and shipping facility. (That same day, at BHP Billiton&rsquo;s Klipspruit coal mine in Northern Province, South Africa, a miner was killed when a drill rig fell on him.) 
 
Less than a month before Workers&rsquo; Memorial Day, Australian trade union activists were not silent on BHP Billiton and its contractors&rsquo; death toll. At the Safety Institute of Australia&rsquo;s &ldquo;Safety in Action&rdquo; Conference in Melbourne on 31 March, CFMEU and AMWU members gathered in loud protest on safety issues. The reason: John Holland Chairman Janet Holmes was delivering the keynote address.

BHP’s Mining Deaths in Western Australia Face Serious Scrutiny

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In a unified response to safety shortfalls that killed a contract worker at Drummond Coal&rsquo;s La Loma mine, 8,000 members of Sintramienerg&eacute;tica and other contract staff stage a four-day strike late in March that shut production of Colombia&rsquo;s second largest coal mine. 
 
Dagoberto Clavijo Barranco, a one-month worker at La Loma who was put there through a labour agency, was killed on 23 March when the coal-hauling vehicle he was operating fell into an open-cast mine. 
 
Drummond released all miners from work duties following the tragedy, but when the strike spread over the next few days because workers&rsquo; demanded improved safety, the company, in a statement, called the strike illegal. 

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A Sintramienerg&eacute;tica leader said Drummond agreed to meet with the union to discuss safety but was &ldquo;flippant&rdquo; in stating that no amount of negotiations will improve safety conditions. The company, on 27 March, issued a further public statement after full production at La Loma resumed. This time Drummond said it regretted the accident and would continue its &ldquo;best efforts together with the competent authorities to clear up this unfortunate incident.&rdquo; 
 
Drummond has had nine mining deaths at La Loma in C&eacute;sar state over the past decade. Another three have occurred at its port facilities near Barranquilla. 
 
In the days following the end of the safety strike, Drummond terminated 600 workers because of a strike by the transport union, Sintraime. Workers of coal-transport contractors Carbograneles and Fenoco (partially owned by Drummond) began strikes on 25 March, and these strikes were still underway late last week. Transport workers are striking for full union recognition on rail lines and at port facilities, as well as over overtime procedures. 
 
The mining union Sintramienerg&eacute;tica is insisting that Drummond recall the 600, claiming it has no responsibility in the transport strike. 
 
Drummond directly or indirectly employs 9,000 workers at La Loma, and the American company will soon start up its El Descanso mine in C&eacute;sar state, a US$1.8 billion investment that will increase the company&rsquo;s coal production to 27 million tones annually.

Contract Worker Death Causes Safety Strike at Drummond in Colombia

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Dutch delegates to the recent two-day Congress of FNV Bondgenoten re-elected Henk van der Kolk as chairman of the largest trade union in The Netherlands. The Congress was held in Rotterdam. 
 
Also re-elected were General Secretary Ellen Dekkers, Federal Secretary Anja Jongbloed, and Treasurer Willem Noordham. The end of the Congress on 30 January thus began third terms for this leadership team. 

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Henk van der Kolk FNV Bondgenoten Chairman
In his speech to open the Congress, van der Kolk called on Dutch social partners to initiate a new employment scheme come 1 March when the Working Hours Reduction plan expires. That plan was initially put in place in November 2008 to address the financial crisis, and was extended in January. It allows distressed companies to reduce the hours of workers, with those workers assured of receiving full pay through state funds. 
 
&ldquo;There must be something new after March 1,&rdquo; van der Kolk said, adding the crisis likely will continue throughout 2009 and into 2010. He said the government must be committed to re-training and job creation. He also warned the Social Affairs and Employment minister not to increase the pension age. 
 
Van der Kolk has headed Bondgenoten since the end of 2002, prior to which he was a director for the national centre, FNV. From 1989 to 1997, he worked for the General Union of Education Staff, the predecessor union to Algemene Onderwijsbond (AOb).

FNV Bondgenoten Congress Re-Elects Henk van der Kolk for 4-Year Term

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A general strike in the French West Indies territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique turned deadly last week when a fifty-year-old union leader, Jacques Bino, was killed as he approached a road block set up by disenfranchised youths in Point-&agrave;-Pitre, the largest city of Guadeloupe. His car was hit three times by 12-gauge shotgun slugs, one of which hit the tax and union official in the chest. 
 
Six policemen were also wounded in Guadeloupe that same evening, 17 February, as widespread rioting took place on the Caribbean island. It is thought that Bino may have been killed after being mistaken for a plainclothes policeman. 
 
The general strike started 20 January by a grouping of 50 trade unions and associations, under the banner &ldquo;Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon&rdquo; (Stand Up Against Exploitation). The strike is over a social caste system that harkens back to the days of slavery on the islands. 
 
On 14 February, thousands of workers marched through the town of Le Moule to the chant, &ldquo;Guadeloupe is ours, it&rsquo;s not theirs.&rdquo; 

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Elie Domota
Elie Domota, spokesperson for the Stand Up Against Exploitation stated, &ldquo;Guadeloupe is a colony, because in a French department they would never have let the situation deteriorate this much before intervening.&rdquo; Demonstrators have targeted the island&rsquo;s &lsquo;b&eacute;k&eacute;s&rsquo;, descendants of white plantation owners who still control much of the island&rsquo;s economy. They account for less than 1% of Guadeloupe&rsquo;s 450,000 population. 
 
Citizens of Guadeloupe are victimised because most food is imported and is far more expensive than in France. However, wages are much lower and unemployment levels reach 20%. The Sarkozy administration in Paris has refused calls to recognise a demanded &euro;200 per month increase in the minimum wage, or to address a demand that price cuts to basic essentials such as food and fuel be lowered by 20%. 
 
It took until the fourth week of the strike, only last week, before Sarkozy did intervene. He spoke of the need for profound changes in the island&rsquo;s economy, but failed to give any concrete proposals. 
 
Similar demonstrations have occurred in neighbouring Martinique, while the strike has threatened to spread to the territories of French Guyana in South America, and the Indian Ocean island of Reunion. Protests could spread to mainland France in the coming days and weeks.

General Strike in Guadeloupe Turns Deadly; Finally Gets French Attention

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At a founding meeting in the US city of Pittsburgh, state of Pennsylvania, on 9 February, five unions organised the North American Cement and Building Materials Union Network. The founding of the network was sponsored by the ICEM, in cooperation with the Building and Woodworkers&rsquo; International (BWI). 
 
The unions include US affiliates of the ICEM: the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB), the United Steelworkers (USW), the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), the Laborers International Union (LIUNA), and the Teamsters Union. 
 
The IBB and the USW will coordinate the network, and meetings will be held biannually. 
 
&ldquo;The creation of this network is a major step in dealing with multinational companies in this sector,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We believe companies will pay attention to our demands when the various unions are unified and working jointly together.&rdquo; 

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Global companies operating in North America, whose unionised employees make up the network, include Lafarge of France, Holcim of Switzerland, Buzzi Unicem and Essroc of Italy, Cemex of Mexico, and Heidelberg of Germany. Delegates to the initial conference passed a resolution in support of the UMWA at Lafarge&rsquo;s Joppa cement facility in Grand Chain, Illinois. The union has organised 120 workers at this Ohio River cement plant, but managers are attempting to decertify the UMWA as bargaining representative. 
 
The resolution calls for French senior managers of Lafarge to dispatch its Reference Group to the site to investigate whether or not American managers are violating the Global Framework Agreement, which ICEM and BWI are signatory to with Lafarge. 
 
The network&rsquo;s aims are presenting a unified message to the North American cement industry; pursuing organising neutrality at non-union worksites; enforcing Global Agreements in North America; promoting higher standards and better working conditions; developing coordinated collective bargaining strategies; recruiting and developing the next generation of union leaders; promoting labour-management dialogue on sustainable development; and continuing to coordinate with unions globally at key multinational employers.

ICEM Fosters Start-Up of North American Cement Unions’ Network

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The body count was still being tabulated early today in China&rsquo;s deadliest coal-mine accident in over 14 months. But at least 74 miners were confirmed dead, following a gas explosion that occurred at the Tunlan Coal Mine early Sunday, 22 February. The mine is owned by the Shanxi Jiaomei Group. 
 
Dozens more are still trapped and the death toll could rise to nearly 100. search and rescue efforts were called off at midday today, 23 February. The tragedy occurred at Gujiao City, Shanxi Province, at the company&rsquo;s Shanxi Coking Coal Co. 
 
Yesterday, family members of some of those trapped received mobile phone calls from miners&rsquo; deep underground, perhaps hearing their loved ones voices for the last time. 

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A total of 436 miners were working at the time of the explosion, and some 300 miners managed to escape. Some 114 of those had been hospitalised, and at least 21 of those faced death-threatening circumstances. The Shanxi Jiaomei Group is a private coal and petroleum company. 
 
The disaster was China&rsquo;s worst coal-mine blast since 105 miners perished on 5 December 2007 at the Xinyao coal mine, also in Shanxi Province. Four months earlier, 181 miners died inside shafts of two adjoining mines in Shandong Province when the mines flooded. 
 
Earlier this month, on 13 February, eight Chinese miners were killed in a gas explosion inside the Zhijin mine in Zhijin County, Guizhou Province, which is in the China&rsquo;s southwest region. Those victims were identified as migrant workers from nearby Chongquing. Twenty-five miners managed to escape that explosion.

Mine Explosion Brings Weekend Death Toll to 74 at Major Chinese Colliery

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