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Eighteen Russian miners have been underground now for nearly a week, engaged in a hunger strike against mine operator Sakhalinugol in Uglegorsk area on Sakhalin Island over unpaid wages. The miners are due 34 million roubles (US$114,000) dating back to 2002. They have mined 44,000 tonnes of coal so far in 2005, yet have been paid nothing by interim management following financial failure by the company. The miners, protesting 142 meters below the surface, got the support of Sakhalin Governor Ivan Malakhov, who declared, &ldquo;The failure to pay the wages miners&rsquo; have earned is a direct violation of law.&rdquo; Wives and children of the 18 were expected to join the protest today at the mineshaft.

Russian Miners in Far East Stage Hunger Strike

Another USW metals strike, now entering its eighth week in the Canadian province of British Colombia, will get a chance for resolve with renewed mediation on 9 September. The union and Teck Cominco Ltd. At a zinc, lead and metals refinery in Trail, BC, are locked in dispute over wage and pension benefits conceded in the 1990s. USW maintains the current windfall of high zinc and metal prices has lifted Teck&rsquo;s bottom line, and such profitability warrants adequate adjustments for the 1,300 strikers. British Colombia provincial leaders, however, have turned a deaf ear to legitimate demands by the USW that it halt the company&rsquo;s sale of hydrogenerated power across the border to the US while Canadian steelworkers of Teck Cominco are on strike.

USW&#039;s Teck Cominco Strike in Canada Continues

The 1,550 USW copper-mining members who are on strike in the states of Arizona and Texas against Grupo Mexico&rsquo;s Asarco got a boost last month when thousands of Mexican mining and metallurgical workers engaged in hour-long stop-work actions in support of both the American trade unionists, as well as Mexican steel mill workers on strike in L&aacute;zaro C&aacute;rdenas, Michoac&aacute;n state. The US copper strike, begun at different locations in late June and early July, has now been complicated by the Mexican subsidiary filing bankruptcy in US federal court in Texas. That action, the USW says, is result of non-investment in facilities while copper prices were low, thus restricting Asarco&rsquo;s ability now &ldquo;to reap the full rewards of the ongoing copper boom.&rdquo;

Stop-Work Actions in Mexico for US Miners

Today marks Labour Day in North America and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB) Local 484 in Meredosia will more than double the 1,100-populated town in west-central Illinois with a march and rally. 
The union has been locked out since 6 June by Celanese, an emulsions, adhesives and polymers producer owned by corporate trading goliath Blackstone Group. The rally will feature pro-labour Illinois State Governor Rod Blagojevich. An ICEM Circular last month produced scores of Solidarity messages to the 148-member branch union. 
<img height="147" src="" width="125" alt="" />
&ldquo;The support letters from all around the world really mean a lot to our members,&rdquo; said IBB Local 484 Secretary-Treasurer Paul Craig. &ldquo;It let us know that we are not fighting this battle alone.&rdquo; Blackstone bought the plant in February and when workers rejected harsh health care concessions and company plans to cut 41 jobs in favour of contractors, management locked out workers. 
Following Local 484&rsquo;s second rejection of the same company proposal in late June, Celanese came to the bargaining table in July demanding 20- 40% in pay cuts.

US Boilermakers&#039; Lockout Gains Global Attention

The Global Employee Forum of Norwegian pulp and paper producer Norske Skog has issued a strong statement in support of ICEM affiliate Fellesforbundet. The union is seeking to keep open a 380-worker book and newsprint mill in Skien, Norway, called Norske Skog Union. But the company is intent on closing in order to reduce capacity even though buyers have lined up to acquire the mill. The firm&rsquo;s Global Employee Forum has charged management that it has not &ldquo;prioritized and not taken advantage of the book market&rsquo;s shortage of book paper.&rdquo; Norske Skog has said &ldquo;no to inquiries from customers in this market&rdquo; and the employees&rsquo; forum calls on the company to exhibit the necessary social responsibility to &ldquo;see that production at Norske Skog Union is maintained, at least with new owners.&rdquo;

Norske Skog Workers Protest Closure of Norwegian Paper Mill

A broad workers&rsquo; movement in Nepal backed by global trade union confederations will convene next weekend, 10-12 September, in Katmandu. The conference will call for full restoration of human and trade union rights in the Himalayan kingdom and will issue a road map to that end. Some 1,500 trade union leaders from both inside and outside Nepal will attend. National trade union center GEFONT, one of four Nepalese organisations organising the event, said the conference &ldquo;will declare common mechanism among all workers to fight and safeguard workers&rsquo; rights,&rdquo; adding the conference will &ldquo;train grassroots representatives at once on necessity of democracy for trade unions.&rdquo; Even though a state of emergency issued by the monarchy was lifted last spring, trade union rights continue to be suspended and human rights violations continue to occur.

Labour, Human Rights Conference in Nepal

The ICEM's Asia-Pacific Union Network of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. met in Manila, Philippines, 8-9 August, and attention focused on the American rubber company's fierce resistance to unionisation drives of contract workers in Thailand and Malaysia. Goodyear plant union leaders also discussed the company's retreat from ownership of natural rubber plantations at a time when natural rubber demand coupled with shortages is increasing. Some 21 leaders from Japan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand took part.

Goodyear AP Meeting Studies Contract Labour Issue

Over the course of the summer, an asbestos scandal hit Japan and has been getting a lot of press attention ever since. According to reports, around 3,000 people die every year from asbestos cancer in Japan and it is feared that these numbers may rise considerably in the coming years. When in 1987, lobbyists began to call for a ban of crocidolite, used, amongst other purposes, in Japanese schools, the government failed to take the necessary action. Similarly in the 1990s, when a move to ban asbestos was blocked after &quot;relentless opposition from within the asbestos industry.&quot;

Asbestos Issue Surfaces in Japan

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The 20-million-member ICEM, based in Brussels, fully supports the actions of Belgian workers tomorrow to strike to protect their pension system and the country's current social security plan. 
 
ICEM Belgian affiliate FGTB-ABVV announced earlier in the week that it would stage a 24-hour general strike on 7 October in order to send a clear message to government and business that it will not tolerate the burden of social restructuring placed on workers. 
 
 

<img height="236" alt="" src="" width="300" />
FGTB-ABVV&rsquo;s call: To defend a proper pension system, 
decent jobs for all and adequate social security, 
we strike before it&rsquo;s too late 
&quot;We stand firmly behind FGTB-ABVV in their call for a strike,&quot; stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &quot;It is unfair to place all of the burden on workers when attempting to change the social security structure.&quot; 
 
Unions and employers' associations have been negotiating with the government of Belgium for changes in the retirement system that could lead to eroding conditions for workers preventing them from retiring with full benefits. 
 
The FGTB-ABVV is fighting to preserve the current age at which workers can retire; resisting penalties placed on workers who fall victim to redundancies and restructurings; proposing more jobs programmes for young workers; and coming up with new methods to refinance social security, including placing a greater burden on the wealthy and no additions to the value added tax. 
 
Read more:
FGTB's Call for Strike (in French) 
<a href="http://www.fgtb.be/PDF/fr/Actions/2005/Greve/Greve24heures.pdf">http://www.fgtb.be/PDF/fr/Actions/ 
2005/Greve/Greve24heures.pdf</a>
Issues on This Strike from Affiliate La Centrale 
Generale FGTB (in French) 
<a href="http://www.accg.be/news/be-fr/Tract%20préavis%20FR.pdf">http://www.accg.be/news/be-fr/Tract%20pr&eacute;avis%20FR.pdf</a>

ICEM Supports Belgian Affiliate&#039;s General Strike

Archive

Russian Miners in Far East Stage Hunger Strike

USW's Teck Cominco Strike in Canada Continues

Stop-Work Actions in Mexico for US Miners

US Boilermakers' Lockout Gains Global Attention

Norske Skog Workers Protest Closure of Norwegian Paper Mill

Labour, Human Rights Conference in Nepal

Goodyear AP Meeting Studies Contract Labour Issue

Asbestos Issue Surfaces in Japan

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ICEM Supports Belgian Affiliate's General Strike

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