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Trade unionists are encouraged to apply for the Masters programme at Witwatersrand University, South Africa. The deadline for applications is 31 July. The course on Labour Globalisation is one of the specialised Masters programmes offered by the Global Labour University (GLU). 
 
Participants of GLU courses have the unique opportunity to engage in a diploma course that puts individuals on the front lines of current labour policies in the rapid globalisation of trade and commerce. 
 
The two 14-week semesters of the course compliment an internship placement for participants at trade unions and labour research institutions, offering the chance to engage in the labour movements in different countries and at the international level. 
 
For details, including application and scholarship availability, visit the <a href="http://www.global-labour-university.org">site</a> here. <a href="http://www.global-labour-university.org/54.html">Application forms</a> can be downloaded here. Applications should be sent to <a href="mailto:engage@uni-kassel.de">engage@uni-kassel.de</a>. 
 
The GLU, part of the ILO, has trained trade unionists in economics and in social sciences from 49 countries in its short existence, giving national and local trade union staff the opportunity to pick up specific curriculums tailored to improve their skills at home. 
 
The GLU awards a limited number of scholarships for participants from developing and transition countries. Applicants need to have the endorsement of a trade union to apply for a scholarship.

Global Labour University Masters Application Deadline 31 July

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The 55-week lockout by US manufacturing and technology company Honeywell Inc. on 228 unionised workers appears to be over. United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669 in Metropolis, Illinois, and the US company came to tentative terms for a new three-year contract on 20 July, which likely sets in motion a return to work for USW members beginning on 15 August if union members ratify the tentative accord next week. 
 
The workers convert yellow-cake uranium into uranium hexafluoride (UF6), which is used in nuclear fuel enrichment. USW Local 7-669 members have been locked off their jobs since 28 June 2010 and in the weeks following, Honeywell inexplicably re-started operations at a worksite utilising dangerous chemicals with inexperienced replacement workers. 
 
Local 7-669 President Darrell Lillie said the union is currently in the process of sorting out job re-classifications; Honeywell has created 21 new jobs and with the union retaining its seniority provisions in the tentative new agreement, job scheduling and job bidding must take place for returning workers.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Darrel Lillie - Honeywell USW.jpg" width="154" height="169"/>
USW Local 7-669 President Darrell Lillie  

Lillie said that should be complete today and the union will conduct an explanation meeting of the new contract early next week, with voting on the tentative agreement expected to occur by mid-week. 
 
“Overall, we’re not entirely happy with the proposed contract but we are glad that several of the key issues that the company was trying to take from us will remain in place,” said Lillie. “We preserved most provisions that are at the heart of what trade unionists value.” 
 
Those provisions include the seniority provisions, which allow senior-most workers to accept more favourable jobs when they become open; retention of a defined benefit pension plan for existing workers; retiree medical care under that same pension scheme; and retention of overtime pay for time work after eight and 12 hours per day. Honeywell workers in Metropolis work both eight- and 12-hour work shifts. 
 
Another important provision kept by workers was time-and-a-half pay on the sixth consecutive day in a week worked, and double-time for the seventh. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4538-Honeywell-Threatens-Safety-by-Extending-Lockout-of-USW-Members-" type="internal">ICEM news piece</a> from earlier this month.) 
 
Regarding wages, the proposal contains no increase for the first year of the contract, 1% effective 15 August 2012, and 2% due on 15 August 2013. It should be noted that at the outset of the lockout, Local 7-669 proposed a freeze on wages and continuation of all terms and conditions from a previous three-year contract, but the company was set on gutting many benefits and union-protection provisions. 
 
In the proposed agreement, new hires will fall into an equity fund scheme rather than the defined-benefit AlliedSignal Pension Benefit Thrift Fund, and workers on leave under the US Family and Medical Leave Act must take vacation time concurrently. A handful of janitorial and laundry jobs will be contracted out, and more worrisome in such a dangerous worksite, a single safety operator job will be outsourced. That position is responsible for maintaining all safety equipment throughout the plant, such as fire extinguishers, emergency breathing devices and other safety equipment. 
 
Lillie said 150 workers will return to training and re-orientation as mandated by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission on 15 August, 40 workers two weeks later, and the remainder two weeks after that. The unionised workforce will number about 220 workers when the experienced and qualified USW members are fully back to work.  
 
“Local 7-669 is highly appreciative of the tremendous support we have received from trade unions, those in the community and others throughout this long lockout,” said Lillie. “The donations, the international support, and the recognition by many here and abroad on what we were up against will never be forgotten.”

USW Union at Honeywell Reaches Tentative Labour Agreement

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Members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669 in Metropolis, Illinois, ratified a three-year labour agreement with Honeywell, Inc., on 2 August, officially ending a lockout that began on 28 June 2010. The ratification vote came a full 13 days following conclusion of a negotiated settlement (see <a href="/en/3-Energy-Oil-and-Gas/4564-USW-Union-at-Honeywell-Reaches-Tentative-Labour-Agreement" type="internal">ICEM report</a> of 22 July). 
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">The extraordinary long time between the tentative settlement and the ratification came because Honeywell managers at the uranium converting facility neglected to give explicit job assignments to locked-out workers in a separate back-to-work agreement. </div>
Terms of the agreement take effect today with the majority of USW members attending re-certification sessions at an area college.
The 228 steelworkers at Honeywell convert milled uranium, known as yellow-cake uranium, into uranium hexafluoride (UF6) which is used in nuclear fuel enrichment. The lock-out was marked by Honeywell’s decision to resume full production nine weeks into the company’ s work stoppage and then re-start operations with inexperienced scab replacement workers. Twice in the months that followed, the plant saw near-miss tragedies due to mishandling of dangerous chemicals.
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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">The period between the 20 July 2011 tentative agreement and the 2 August ratification, which occurred with a 113-75 vote, was as contentious as the entire lockout was. Honeywell managers told Local 7-699 that it wanted experienced workers to return to the jobs they knew best, but then submitted a back-to-work roster which saw job postings many of the locked-out workers had never worked before. </div>
It took Local 7-669 leaders enormous time and effort in the 13-day interval to sort out the return-to-work roster. Meanwhile, Honeywell managers publicly denounced the union for not conducting the ratification vote. “They were trying to force a vote before our people knew exactly which job they would return to,” said local union spokesman John Smith.
Local 7-669 members begin the return-to-work ritual today with training and re-certification as mandated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Forty workers will return two weeks later for the same, and the remainder two weeks after that. The unionised workforce will number about 220 workers when the experienced and qualified USW members are fully back to work. 
The negotiated settlement preserves most of the key union-protection provisions that Honeywell was trying to strip at the start of the lockout, including seniority, job bidding, overtime, and retention of a defined benefit pension plan for existing workers, as well as retiree medical benefits that go along with that plan. 
On wages, the new three-year collective agreement calls for no increase in the first year, 1% effective 15 August 2012, and 2% on 15 August 2013. Local 7-669 proposed in bargaining over a year ago a freeze on wages and continuation of all terms and conditions of a prior three-year contract. But Honeywell seemed intent on taking away pension benefits, the accompanying health care benefits, as well as union-protection provisions. 
Honeywell abandoned most of those contract concessions, perhaps realising that it needed experienced steelworkers to effectively operate the plant safety and productively. Production had plummeted to a reported 35% of pre-lockout levels and Honeywell was not meeting its order demand for UF6. 
USW Local 7-669 waged an extraordinary campaign in preserving most of their work standards. The workers traveled to Madison, Wisconsin, to stand with public employees protesting the gutting of their collective bargaining rights by Governor Scott Walker; they journeyed to Europe and won support from major trade union federations, as well as Honeywell’s European Works Council (see that <a href="/en/3-Energy-Oil-and-Gas/4429-EMCEF-EMF-EPSU-Condemn-Honeywell-Lockout-in-US" type="internal">ICEM update</a> here); and they connected with immigrant groups in Los Angeles, California, to block Honeywell from gaining a water-services contract there.

USW Local 7-669, Honeywell Accord Takes Effect Today, Ending US Lockout

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ICEM’s six Colombian affiliates – Sintraelecol, Sintracarbon, Sintravidricol, Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), Fenaltec, and Sintracarcol – escalated their coordinated struggle against Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) at a seminar held from 26-28 July in Bogotá. 
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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Attended by more than 200 representatives, the seminar welcomed delegates from Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, and Spain. The ICEM was represented by its Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Kemal Özkan, while regional leadership of other Global Union Federations – International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), UNI, and Public Services International (PSI) – as well as the FNV national centre of the Netherlands attended. A number of local union and NGO representatives were also present. </div>
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Organized and coordinated by ICEM Colombian Coordinator Carlos Bustos, the meeting was opened by Özkan, who highlighted ICEM’s global campaign against Contract and Agency Labour. Attendees also listened to presentations from major Colombian national confederation leaders, including the presidents of CUT, CTC, and CGT. All underscored the need to pay close attention to the measures that the union movement as a whole must take to end all forms of precarious employment. 
 
They also spoke of the need to establish mechanisms by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the ITUC’s Americas regional arm, the CSA, to eliminate precarious employment and the scourge of poverty that it creates. 
 
International delegates as well as Colombian union representatives saluted the meeting with messages of their actions against irregular employment. 
 
The phenomenon of precarious employment is seen in transformation of technological advances, rapid globalisation, industrialisation, expansion of capital, and competitive measures and increasing capital accumulation by only a few. This makes impaired working conditions possible, most participants agreed.
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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">In Colombia, unemployment reached to 12.8% in February in 2011. In 2010, the figure of underemployment was 32.6%, while the informal sector employs some 58% of all workers. Union density, however, remains at less than 4% over the last several years. 
 
High rates of unemployment are presented as an excuse for the increased irregular forms of employment. In such high unemployment, employers try to reduce working conditions, and use the refrain “there will always be someone waiting for the job." 
 
As stated by Carlos Bustos, the seminar aimed at to characterize the phenomenon of precarious employment in Colombia, particularly in sectors where ICEM affiliates are active, and it achieved a full exchange of experiences from the legal, economic, political, and social points of view. The successful experiences achieved by USO, Sintravidricol, and Sintracarbon attracted much attention, since these unions have managed to recruit workers who are on non-regular employment contracts. 
 
Finally, a joint declaration (read the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/FINAL%20DECLARATION%20-%20ES.pdf" type="internal">Spanish language version</a> here) was developed and approved. It exhibits firmness and decisiveness by participating organizations to tackle Contract and Agency Labour issues.</div>

ICEM’s Colombian Affiliates Band Together to Fight Contract, Agency Labour

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A Mexican coal mine explosion inside a Coahuila colliery of Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA), a subsidiary of the Grupo Acerero del Notre steel and transport conglomerate, killed four miners early on 26 August. The explosion occurred at AHMSA’s “La Esmeralda,” or No. 5 mine in the municipality of San Juan de Sabinas. 
 
Six other miners managed to escape the blast, which occurred during the 25 August night shift. The explosion caused a roof inside the mine to collapse, burying the miners who were operating machines. A total of 132 miners were at work at the No. 5 mine at the time of the blast. Bodies of the four dead miners were recovered late on 26 August. 
 
They are: Miguel Hernández Martínez, 33; Mario Alberto Flores Martínez, 38; Ángel González Pineda, 32; and Jesús Tobías Hernández, 36. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Mexico.SNTMMSRM.jpg" width="100" height="121"/>
The ICEM and Metalworkers’ affiliate, National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros, blasted the yellow union set up at La Esmeralda for remaining silent on the mine tragedy, just as it had when a 27 March 2011 tragedy happened at another AHMSA mine that killed two and injured three. That occurred at AHMSA’s Monclova No. 7 mine, also in Coahuila state. 
 
Los Mineros leveled blame on the company and the “irresponsibility, greed, and arrogance” of AHMSA that caused the deaths, comparing it to Grupo México’s negligence in the 2006 Pasta de Conchos mine explosion that killed 65 miners. 
 
AHMSA is Mexico’s largest vertically integrated steel producer and third largest overall, and is a company that strives to supply its own coal and iron ore reserves. The company, which was state owned until 1992, also has become a heavyweight in cross-border transport and export of pipe and tube, rolled steel products, carbon steels, and other iron and steel products. Construction of AHMSA’s sixth blast furnace recently as part of the Fénix project, has lifted the firm’s annual steel-making capacity to over five million tonnes annually. 
 
The La Esmeralda mine began production in 1999. 
 
Over two dozen mine deaths have occurred so far this year in Coahuila state, including 14 who died after an explosion in an illegal coal mine on 3 May. That <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4413-Mine-Blast-Near-Pasta-de-Conchos-Kills-14-in-Mexico " type="internal">Mexican safety travesty</a> can be read here in an ICEM May 2011 account.

Coal Mine Blast at Mexican Steel Company Unit Kills 4

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ICEM and the Building & Wood Workers’ 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 “habitual offender, dangerous, and a threat to law and order.” 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. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="146" height="66"/>
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&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 “assurances” of looking into the workers’ 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’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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The ICEM Presidium on 23 May endorsed the appointment of Kemal Özkan as new Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs effective 1 June. He picks up the new role in addition to his current duties of Chemical and Rubber Industries’ Officer, a position he has held since coming to the ICEM early in 2007. 
 
As an engineer with a master’s degree in economics and business administration, Özkan worked at ICEM’s Turkish affiliate Petroleum, Chemical and Rubber Workers’ Union for some 15 years before joining the ICEM. Coming from a family of trade unionists, Özkan’s father was imprisoned for four years for union activity during the military coup d’état in Turkey in 1980. 
 
“I am honoured to be named as new Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs of ICEM,” said Özkan. “It gives me more responsibility to ensure the success of our organization. I will continue to do my best efforts to reinforce ICEM activities in the sectors and in industrial relations.” 
 
Added General Secretary Manfred Warda, “Kemal Özkan is a worthy person for this position with his knowledge, success, and activism. He has always shown his preparedness for taking further responsibility at the ICEM. I am sure with his new assignment he will again demonstrate his readiness to carry our flag into the future.” 
 
Özkan is 42 years old and married to Selma Basak.

Özkan Named ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs

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ICEM’s Swiss affiliate, UNIA, is playing a central role in organising a national day of action and strike on 14 June calling for equal rights for women workers. Hundreds of activities will be held marking the protest, expected to include 100,000 people from over 45 organisations. 
 
Events in each of Switzerland’s main cities will educate and agitate around the issues of the gender gap in wages and in national legislation. Public administration buildings and main landmarks will be coloured with purple, including Geneva’s water jet fountain, the jet d’eau. 

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In Switzerland, women earn on average 19.8% less than men in performing the same job. Nurses are especially low paid, in relation to men performing similar roles, and the Swiss Nurses Union will be actively involved in the 14 June protest. 
 
Not only are women paid less than men in Switzerland, but they take on twice the amount of un-paid work, with a much higher challenge than men to coordinate family and professional life. Many women see their careers halted by family requirements. And an extremely low proportion of top-level managers in Switzerland are women, leading many in the movement to call for quotas enforced by law. 
 
Next week on 14 June marks 30 years since equality of the sexes was enshrined in Swiss law, and 20 years since the first women’s strike in the country. The date also coincides with the expected adoption of an ILO Convention for Domestic Workers’ Rights, arguably the most precarious and lowest-paid work sector.

Swiss Women Set 14 June as ‘Equality Now’ Day

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Addressing the Plenary sitting of the 100th session of the International Labour Conference today, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda called for action on precarious work, workers' health and safety in the mining industry, and attention to the violation of rights of Holcim employees in India, as well as on abuses to glass workers in Mexico. 
 
Warda condemned the shocking attempt by Swiss-based cement multinational Holcim to crush the union representing its employees in India, with unsubstantiated claims leading to the 19 May arrest of union leaders engaged during a legal battle for the reinstatement of 80 members illegally sacked at the Holcim-ACC unit at Jamul.
Referring to the recent attempt of those outsourced workers to voice their concerns to the authorities, Warda continued, “It is deplorable that Mr. Chandrashekhar Sahu, the Labor Minister of the State of Chhattisgarth of India, attending this Conference, refused to meet 250 Holcim workers who had walked long distances to appeal to him for observation of basic trade union rights.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.manfred ilo.2.JPG" width="327" height="160"/>
Warda called on governments and employers to move towards ratification and implementation of ILO Convention 176 and its associated Recommendation 183, on safety and health in mines. With Ukraine soon to become the 25th country to ratify the Convention, this represents far too few adoptions, while miners are continuing to be killed and injured every day around the world. 
 
Finally, Warda focussed on the ILO complaint No. 2774 by Mexican affiliated union SUTEIVP. The complaint is being fully supported by the ICEM, following a 2008 mass dismissal of hundreds of workers at Industria Vidriera del Potosi S.A., a manufacturer of glass bottles used by Corona beer. The sacked workers were covered by a collective bargaining agreement and included the executive committee of the SUTEIVP at the plant. A protection contract was then established by the employer. 
 
See the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEM_Manfred_Warda_ILC_Plenary_Speech%20_8_June%20FINAL.pdf" type="internal">full text of the speech</a> here.

ICEM General Secretary Addresses International Labour Conference

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The European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers’ Federation (EMCEF) elected new leadership at an extraordinary General Assembly, held 3 May in Luxembourg. Some 90 delegates unanimously voted for Michael Vassiliadis, President of German trade union IG BCE, as President of EMCEF, while former ICEM officer Michael Wolters was named Acting General Secretary. 
 
They replace EMCEF President Hubertus Schmoldt, who retired from IGBCE in 2009, and General Secretary Reinhard Reibsch, who now retires. The assembly welcomed General Secretary Peter Scherer of the European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF) and President Valeria Fedeli and General Secretary Patrick Itschert of the European Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation. These two European federations together with EMCEF are expected to integrate in 2012, creating a single industrial trade union federation for Europe. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0907.Michael%20Vassiliadis.jpg" width="165" height="140"/>
New EMCEF President, Michael Vassiliadis
General Secretary Bernadette Segol of UNI-Europa also addressed the assembly. She is likely to be elected General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) when the ETUC holds its Congress next week in Athens. 
 
Founded in 1996 in Luxembourg, EMCEF represents some two million members in 38 European countries. Delegates on 3 May discussed the Secretariat's report on activities and finances, and then went into a detailed report on the future of European trade union activities, including the role of a new industrial union federation in Europe. 
 
The General Assembly also gave approval to three resolutions: affirming the fight against contract labour and precarious forms of work, affirmation to create a new European industry trade union federation; and giving support to Romanian affiliates fighting against extreme austerity measures there. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1105.emcef.jpg" width="220" height="165"/>
Schmoldt, Vassiliadis, Wolters, Reibsch
Vassiliadis, in his first speech as head of EMCEF, underlined the importance integration: “We need combined forces to respond to major social, political, economic, and environmental challenges.” He also praised Schmoldt, who he said transformed EMCEF from a loose association of trade unions to an influential trade union federation. 
 
Elected President of IGBCE in October 2009, Vassiliadis has been on IGBCE’s six-member Governing Board since 2004, and has directed areas of works councils, shop steward development, trade union education, and youth activities for the German union. Originally from a Bayer plant near his home in Essen, he sits now on the supervisory boards of chemical companies BASF and Henkel, as well as serving as deputy chairman of the potash producer Kali and Salz and Evonik Steag. 
 
Wolters hails from Hamburg’s chemical sector. He began with IG Chemie in 1990, did youth work for the union in eastern Germany then and in 2001 became the director of the union’s Dresden office. He worked at the ICEM from 2005 until 2007 and since has been working in IGBCE’s International Department in Hannover. 
 
ICEM was represented at the EMCEF General Assembly by Chemical and Rubber Industries Officer Kemal Özkan.

New Leadership Comes in at EMCEF

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