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Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union (EPMU) of New Zealand has re-launched its 5% wage hike campaign last week for workers at Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) operations. The ICEM affiliate had put wage talks on hold last year with the forest products firm after Graeme Hart’s Rank Investments began buying stakes in the Auckland-listed company. 
EPMU has successfully negotiated 5% wage increases at three CHH enterprises, with bargaining at seven sites still outstanding from last year. 
Hart, owner now of 86% of CHH, increased his bid for shares last week by offering NZ$2.75-a-share, twenty-five cents better than his original offer. Hart needs 90% of CHH to de-list the company and take it private.

EPMU Re-boots 5% Wage Campaign at Carter Holt Harvey

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ICEM Serbia-Montenegro affiliate EPS Trade Union has halted strike actions against three electric and mining enterprises of the state-run electric power generation and distribution company. Progressive strike actions had been underway to claim wage arrears and pay hikes for 2006. 
The union and government came to a tentative deal that workers would accept loans for shortfalls in January, February and March, and bargaining would start again in a month’s time. EPS Trade Union had engaged in daily strike actions and other protests since 10 January, in efforts to claim workers’ rightful wages.

EPS Trade Union in Serbia Suspends Strike Actions

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Tuesday, 7 February, will mark a full year that US members of United Steelworkers (USW) in Cincinnati, Ohio have been on strike against Cognis, a German chemicals company. 
USW Local 14340 will observe the anniversary by placing further attention on Cognis and its joint-venture partner who are operating the plant at great environmental risk, and with known health and safety deficiencies. 
Workers struck because Cognis would not agree to union recognition through a “successorship” clause in the labour agreement when Cognis and Malaysian Golden Hope Plantations formed a joint venture to run the oleochemicals division of the plant. The company is now refusing to accept strikers back to work even if the strike is ended. 
In a letter to Cognis CEO Antonio Trusi Oliva, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs called this “unacceptable” and urged him to use his “influence inside this new enterprise to assure that a settlement to this strike will include jobs for all USW union members who wish to return to work.”

USW Members in Ohio Seek Justice from Chemicals Producer

More than 1500 trade unionists participated in a torch-lit march in the city centre of Gent, Belgium, yesterday, protesting against the shocking behaviour of the management of Stora Enso’s paper mill in Langerbrugge, near Gent. 
 
 

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At the heart of the demonstration were the two Belgian trade union representatives that Stora Enso, a Finnish-Swedish multinational headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, dismissed at the end of last year for their union activities. For the full background see: <a href="/?id=77&doc=1638&la=EN" type="internal">Stora Enso Retaliates Against Union Leaders in Gent, Belgium (3 February 2006)</a>. 
 
 

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An ICEM delegation, led by Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary, participated in the protest march. The presence of the ICEM highlighted the international character of the dispute, as the ICEM representatives carried the banner of the Canadian Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), another ICEM affiliate also facing an attack by Stora Enso management. 
 
One similarity between the disputes in Canada and Belgium is the desire of the company to have unchecked freedom in contracting out jobs, thereby seriously jeopardising job security at Stora Enso facilities. Another similarity is the blatantly anti-union behaviour. Stora Enso is becoming increasingly known as a company showing little or no regard for the rights of its workers and their unions in its chase of higher profitability. 
 
 

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At the march, flags were exchanged between representatives of the ICEM, in the name of CEP, and the Belgian ACCG, in a display of solidarity between the Canadian unionists and the Belgian protesters. Discussions took place between the two unions and the ICEM in Brussels last week. 
 
 

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Protest March Against Stora Enso Behaviour in Belgium

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A study commissioned by the Swedish Employment Ministry states that companies with ten or more employees should be limited to hiring only full-time workers.
The study also says that part-time or temporary workers employed for three years should be given the right to demand a full-time job from their employer. At least 200,000 Swedes—75% of whom are women—are stuck in part-time jobs but seek full-time employment, according to the study.

Swedish Government Study Calls for More Full-time Jobs

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Halliburton, the US construction and oil services company, continues to restrict union representation of the unaffiliated Chemical, Energy, Mines, Oil & Gas, and General Workers’ Union (FSP KEP) in Jakarta, Indonesia.
 The company is attempting to withdraw certification of the Jakarta branch union of FSP KEP because branch leaders elected include workers from the information technology department. Halliburton Energy Services of Indonesia claims IT workers have access to sensitive company data, thus should not be eligible to hold union office.
Halliburton delayed a collective agreement for FSP KEP members for a two-year period up until recently because of management turnover and attempts to cut workers’ benefits. Halliburton is deployed as a contract services provider to several multinational oil companies doing business in Indonesia, including state-run Pertamina, the Chinese government’s CNOOC, ConocoPhillips, BP, Total and Caltex.

Halliburton Interferes with Indonesian Union’s Elected Officers

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International Coal Group (ICG), the US-based company responsible for 12 mining deaths last week in the state of West Virginia, operates 21 US coal mines in America, all non-union. Yet, three emergency-response teams from nearby United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) staffed mines, plus the ICEM affiliate’s Health and Safety director were involved in rescue efforts at ICG’s Sago mine on 2 January after 13 miners became trapped following a gas explosion.
ICG has become a major eastern US coal supplier to utility companies at a time of high demand and high prices. The company is a creation of Wilbur L. Ross, a bankruptcy buyout opportunist who has a two-decade-long record in steel, textile and now coal bankruptcies. Ross uses US court bankruptcy proceedings to gain tax deferrals and cancel workers’ bargaining rights, pension benefits and retiree health care.
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ICG bought bankrupt Horizon Natural Resources, Anker Coal Group and CoalQuest Development, among others over the past few years. ICG gained a stake in Anker, the former owner of Sago, in the early 2000s and increased his holding as the company weakened and entered bankruptcy in 2002.
He only recently finalised buyout of the company for US$173 million, adding some eight coal mines and loading facilities to ICG. Also in late 2005, Ross took ICG—founded only in 2004—public, infusing US$250 million cash into the firm, and causing Ross to state: “It’s all new money for the company. Neither my firm nor the founding shareholders are selling any stock on the offering at all.” Ross’s controlling stake increased from 9.2% to 13.7% on the initial public offering. 
 
It is evident Ross’s “new money” and current coal revenue profit-taking are not intended for miners’ social welfare, whether it be retirement benefits or job safety. On 30 August 2004, 17 UMWA members were arrested by police when they and 800 others protested before a US bankruptcy court in Louisville, Kentucky. Some 3,000 UMWA members, both active and retired, were about to lose job security, and health care coverage as Ross and IGC took control of Horizon at a discount value in the bankruptcy court.
Early last week, the UMWA was actively involved in saving lives at the Sago mine. In a statement by the union expressing deep sadness to miners’ families, and reflecting on the “inexplicable confusion” over initial reports that the miners were alive, President Cecil Roberts said, “Though not members of UMWA, the miners who work in the Sago mine include neighbors and relatives of UMWA members.” The efforts of rescuers, he added, “demonstrate once again that we are all brothers and sisters in the coal fields, and we pull together to help each other in times like these.”
Roberts had another message last week, published in a West Virginia newspaper. It concerned the effect that energy demand and high coal prices have on marginal properties with inferior safety records when pressed into service: “We hope we don’t lose the focus on how dangerous this business is,” stated Roberts.

Sago Mine Disaster: Safety, Workers’ Rights Victimized by Bankruptcies

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Tomorrow, the Australian labour movement will take to the streets in several cities with hundreds of thousands of protestors aimed at the Howard government’s proposed industrial relations reforms. Introduced into Parliament on 2 November, WorkChoices legislation is draconian workplace reform reminiscent of conditions that produced wholesale class warfare a century ago. 
Howard’s Conservatives, now controlling both houses of Parliament, pushed the reform through the lower chamber on 10 November by initiating “gag and guillotine” rules that prevented opposing MPs from speaking. 
The package of worker restrictions now goes to a Senate committee, and is expected to be brought to the full Senate chamber on 28 November. The reform will extinguish established collective enterprise agreements in favour of individual contracts; restrict trade union rights in representation matters; create unfair workplace dismissals; limit the range of issues unions can bring into bargaining; and will weaken annual leave provisions and remove the right to public holidays enjoyed by some workers, among just a few of the harsh measures. 
Australian trade unions have responded in typical fighting fashion, for example, by countering the affront to the country’s lowest paid workers with introduction of 4% hikes in the minimum wage in five separate states. The proposals were made to state industrial relations commissions, agencies the Howard government want abolished in lieu of federal control over workplace laws. Tomorrow’s rallies, like ones staged 30 June just prior to Conservatives taking control of both houses of Parliament, will show Australian workers are bitterly opposed to turning the clock back on industrial relations.

Australian Lab our Movement Rallies on 15 November

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Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on 17-18 November 2005, trade union delegates at the ICEM’s World Conference for the Materials Sector, encompassing the Cement, Glass, and Ceramics Industries, adopted the following statement: 
 
The state of the business scenario in the Cement, Glass, and Ceramics Industries has been one of mergers, acquisitions and re-location of production. The ICEM’s World Conference for the Materials Sector recognized the disruption such business conditions cause to workers and their families. The Conference adopted measures to safeguard the trade union members and their families from the uncertainty caused by the consolidation of companies and the economic consequences brought to workers and their families. The Conference resolved to take all necessary steps to protect the interests of workers in the Materials Sector. 
 
The Conference adopted the following proposals: 
<ul>
 <li>During the next four-year period until the next ICEM World Conference for the Materials Sector, affiliates will seek to initiate dialogue and achieve further Global Framework Agreements with companies associated with the Materials Sector; 
 </li>
 <li>Affiliated Trade Unions will adopt new and innovative networking methods between themselves to further enhance Global Trade Union Solidarity; 
 </li>
 <li>Affiliated Trade Unions fully joined the ICEM’s campaign on the abusive use of Contract and Agency Labour in all facets of work; 
 </li>
 <li>Affiliated Trade Unions moved to become more vigilant in monitoring and ensuring responsible behaviour by global companies in cement, glass and ceramics industries regarding health, safety and the environment. Specifically, unions will fully monitor and engage with employers, as well as campaign against the menace of asbestos and silicosis caused by hazardous materials used in these industries; 
 </li>
 <li>ICEM membership within this sector will engage effective workplace measures to educate and raise awareness of the risk of HIV/AIDS infection, and to ensure that meaningful programmes for anti-discrimination of those living with HIV/AIDS be put in place. 
 </li>
 <li>Affiliated Trade Unions will undertake to increase their efforts regarding the all-important Gender Issue of Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value, and to ensure that any and all gender-based discrimination is eliminated from workplaces. </li>
</ul>
It is the determination and commitment of the ICEM-affiliated Trade Unions in the Materials Sector to take sufficient and meaningful action to meet this agenda and produce a full report on the progress of these initiatives at the next World Conference for the Materials Sector. 
 
Adopted 18 November 2005 
Brussels, Belgium 
 
For more information on this conference, including background documents and presentations, click <a href="?id=148" type="internal">here</a>.

ICEM Declaration on the Materials Sector

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Baltic trade union solidarity was at its best last week when the Lithuanian Confederation of Trade Unions picketed and presented a formal letter of protest to the Estonian embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania. At the same time, on 25 May, Estonian trade union federations EAKL and TALO were demonstrating in the Estonian capital of Tallinn. 
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The joint protest is over the Estonian government’s proposed Employees’ Representatives Act, put forward by the Social Affairs Ministry. If passed into law, the measure would exclude legitimate trade union representatives from information and consultation procedures inside worksites, as well as give employers the leverage to sack trade union delegates. 
 
EAKL Chairman Harri Taliga said the proposed legislation was shaped only with the narrow interests of employers in mind. The ICEM has written to Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip to express concern with the bill, specifically citing it with violating ILO Conventions 98 and 135, as well as a European Union directive on trade union rights.

Lithuanian Labour Protests Estonia’s Anti-Union Legislation

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