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South Africa&rsquo;s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) estimates that between 20,000 and 50,000 jobs will be lost in the country due to the world financial crisis. No mining sector has been spared, but perhaps worst hit is the platinum sector. 
 
In recent days, platinum mining house Lonmin announced 4,000 job cuts, 3,000 at its Western Platinum mine and 1,000 at the Eastern Platinum mine in Marikana. The mining house also plans to suspend operations at its Baobab shaft in Limpopo, causing untold job losses. 
 
These announcements were made by Lonmin CEO Ian Farmer, who claimed the redundancies had been agreed to with unions. But NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka countered that claim, saying it was false, accusing the company of bad planning in the run-up to the start of the crisis last September. 
 
In February, Anglo Platinum CEO Neville Nicolau hinted during a call related to the company&rsquo;s financial results that 10,000 jobs would be cut because of the economic climate. Again, the NUM was critical, citing bad planning and the fact that corporate chieftains publicly proclaim job losses before even consulting with the union, which serves only to frighten miners. 

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Frans Beleni
&ldquo;When platinum prices reached US$2,000 per ounce in May 2008, you could see the reckless spending perpetrated by management,&rdquo; said NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni on a recent South African radio programme. &ldquo;If true leadership prevailed, we could have prevented this bloodbath of job losses,&rdquo; added Baleni. 
 
Platinum is currently selling for about US$1,070 per ounce. 
 
Under Section 189 of South Africa&rsquo;s Labour Relations Act, termed the &ldquo;retrenchments clause,&rdquo; management must confer with labour in order to give an accounting of reasons behind any redundancies. An employer must prove there is a need to cut jobs, otherwise the matter lands in the courts. 
 
One successful intervention occurred at a Simmer &amp; Jacks gold mine in Buffelsfontein in February. The junior miner sought to cull 500 jobs from a production staff of 5,000. But with the help of South Africa&rsquo;s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration, and full dialogue with trade unions, those cuts were reduced to five senior contract workers, with 65 other contract workers becoming permanent staff. 
 
In return, unions, led by the NUM, agreed to miners working one extra shift per month throughout 2009. 
 
In the gold mining sector last week, 4,000 NUM members at Pamodzi Gold went on strike at two mines over non-payment of wages. Miners at the Steyn mine in Free State and at a mine in East Rand began strike action on 6 March after receiving only 20% of their wages for February. 
 
It was the second time this year that Pamodzi faced a shut-down because of its financial outlook. In January, 2,000 miners stayed away from the Free State operation because water supplies had been cut due to unpaid bills. On 5 March, the company announced it was seeking to secure a bridge loan to pay its workers and creditors until its UK and German financiers came through with a loan.

South African Miners Hard Hit by Global Financial Crisis

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Oil workers of Australia&rsquo;s Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU)&nbsp;ratified a renewal three-year enterprise labour agreement on 11 March Royal Dutch Shell&rsquo;s Clyde refinery and Gore Bay terminal in Sydney harbour, but it won&rsquo;t take the sting from Shell&rsquo;s brazen anti-union conduct over the past three months. 
 
Shell manipulated negotiations that began in November 2008 in efforts to force aspects of the draconian WorkChoices law on to the union, seeking to break an enterprise agreement and begin individual work contracts before repeal of former Prime Minister John Howard&rsquo;s anti-worker laws commence on 1 July 2009. 
 
The company initially tabled a proposal reducing a 47-page agreement to 14 pages, stripping away such clauses as workers&rsquo; training, &ldquo;Roles and Responsibilities of Operators,&rdquo; and removing standard manning requirements, thus opening the way for more contractors. Managers also proposed a reduction in operators&rsquo; wages by A$12,000 per year. 

<img height="121" alt="" src="" width="121" />
The 86,000 barrel per day Clyde refinery underwent an extended maintenance shutdown beginning in November, giving the company an opportunity to deploy another union-busting move. That was a demand that its regressive proposals be approved by 30 January 2009, the expiration date of the prior three-year contract, or the CFMEU would face a lock-out. 
 
To prepare for that, Shell&rsquo;s imported managers began bringing in scabs for 18-day training periods as operators, and recruited retired workers from another Australian state. By early February, obviously frustrated with CFMEU&rsquo;s rightful reluctance to accept the concessions, the company applied to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to submit its proposals directly to workers in a secret-ballot vote. 
 
That ballot was defeated on 20 February by a resounding 82%, which not only forced Shell back to the bargaining table, but forced it to change its agenda. 
 
The enterprise agreement that 150 workers&nbsp;voted&nbsp;to accept on 11 March is far better than what Shell managers had sought. It calls for a 12% wage increase over the three years, and full protection of all current work language. 
 
&ldquo;Shell&rsquo;s agenda was nothing but union-busting,&rdquo; said Lorraine Usher, CFMEU&rsquo;S New South Wales District Secretary. The company&rsquo;s &ldquo;actions have left a work force seething with resentment and it will be a long time before trust in the workplace is regained.&rdquo; 
 
Two British managers of Shell at Clyde and Gore Bay were responsible for bringing on the anti-worker agenda. &ldquo;I believe they did everything in their power to escalate the dispute,&rdquo; said Usher. The former Operations Manager at Clyde, Paul Lunt, was retained to handle negotiations. The other was Mark Stevens, who was brought in from Singapore&rsquo;s Shell operations.

Australian Oil Workers at Shell Ratify Contract, But Scars Will Linger

The ICEM has intervened in a retaliatory dispute by French-based Michelin at a large tyre factory called Laem Chabang in Chonburi Province, Thailand. The Global Union Federation, together with French trade union affiliate CFDT, brought the matter before Michelin&rsquo;s European Works Council (EWC) and Michelin Group Manager Jean-Dominique Senard at a EWC meeting in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, on 31 March. 
 
The situation in Thailand is serious. On 25 March, local management locked 383 workers off their jobs after they refused to withdraw their names from a petition submitted two weeks earlier. The petition called on management not to unilaterally impose 13% wage cuts, and to engage in consultation with workers&rsquo; representatives over effects of a downturn in the tyre market. 
 
The petition also called on the company to jointly identify solutions with workers, not to unilaterally dictate terms and conditions. It also asked Michelin&rsquo;s Laem Chabang managers to stop forcing workers to sign acceptance forms on the wage cuts, and to quit victimising workers who did not sign the forms. 
 
Michelin managers responded by suspending eight worker representatives, and imposing a 35% pay cut on workers who refused to disavow the petition. They also reduced their yearly allotment of holidays to six. They then &ndash; on 25 March &ndash; locked out 383 of 458 workers who signed the petition. 
 
&ldquo;This is extreme and harsh behaviour against loyal workers from a company that expects to recover from the global economic crisis,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We have no choice but to demand that the EWC take action. We also call on rubber workers worldwide to take notice, and demand that Michelin rescind this retaliatory punishment.&rdquo; 
 
The tyre workers have been trying to organise with ICEM affiliate Petroleum and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Federation (PCFT) since February, the second time in ten years that staff at Laem Chabang have attempted to unionise. 
 
The plant employs 1,500 staff and produces auto and light truck tyres. Michelin has two other tyre manufacturing plants in Thailand, the Nong Khae plant in Saraburi, employing 1,300 workers, and the Phra Padaeng factory in Samut Prakarn, where 1,500 Thai workers are employed. The latter is unionised by PCFT, with strong union membership. The three plants are 90% owned by Michelin, with the Siam Cement Group holding the remaining 10% stake. 
 
For further information, contact Dick Blin, ICEM Information Officer, +41 22 304 1842, or dick.blin@icem.org.

ICEM Condemns Lockout of Thai Workers by Michelin

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Some 65,000 miners at Europe&rsquo;s largest coal company, Poland&rsquo;s Kompania Weglowa, will not take a 24-hour strike action tomorrow, 7 April, following an agreement on wages last week, 2 April. State-owned Kompania Weglowa and most of the 12 unions representing miners, led by ICEM affiliates NSZZ Solidarność and Kadra, as well as the Polish Miners&rsquo; Trade Union, reached accord for significant 2009 wage increases. 
The settlement came just before Poland&rsquo;s Minister of Economy froze the salaries of board members of all state-owned and operated coal concerns, as well as cutting the salaries of top executives at Kompania Weglowa. Reportedly, the decision freed up money to increase miners&rsquo; salaries. 
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Miners at Kompania Weglowa voted by a 92% margin to launch a day-long strike during the week of 23 March, after government ministry mediators failed to bring the two sides together. On 12 March, workers at Kompania Weglowa&rsquo;s 16 mines staged a two-hour protest strike over their wage demands. 
But last week, just prior to the Economy Ministry&rsquo;s 3 April decision, the company&rsquo;s supervisory board agreed to increase salaries by PLN 900 per month (&euro;200), or about 5%. Kompania Weglowa mining unions had been seeking an 8% increase, but had lowered demands to 6% in mid-March mediation efforts. 
Meanwhile, a total of 40,000 other coal miners at two other state-operated coal production and servicing concerns, Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa (JSW) and Katowicki Holding Weglowy (KHW), are still seeking fair wage settlements. Both companies say they will stick to a wage freeze for 2009, while Polish miners at JSW and KHW seek parity with Kompania Weglowa miners. Both JSW and KHW have planned extraction investments in coal mining that will come on line in the next several months. 
 
At the country&rsquo;s multinational copper company, KGHM, a breakthrough appears imminent following management&rsquo;s initial proposal for a 2009 wage freeze. Trade unions Solidarność and the Association of Copper Industry Employees (ZZPPM) expect 2009 wage increases to be on the bargaining table later in April. Publicly-listed KGHM is 41.8% held by the Polish state.

Polish Miners at Kompania Weglowa Agree to Wage Terms

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ICEM affiliate the United Steelworkers (USW) hosted the North American ICEM meeting in Burnaby, British Colombia, last month. Among central topics discussed were the conflict with LaFarge, concrete efforts around the energy issue in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, responses to the financial crisis, climate change, and solidarity with Mexico&rsquo;s National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (SNTMMSRM). 
 
Ken Neumann of USW-Canada and Dave Coles of the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada serve as ICEM Vice Presidents for North America. 
<img height="135" alt="" src="" width="120" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="120" alt="" src="" width="179" />
Ken Neumann &amp; Dave Coles
Napoleon Gomez, the exiled leader of SNTMMSRM, attended the meeting and provided new insights into the trade union situation in Mexico. ICEM North America affiliates unanimously voted to recommend to the ICEM Executive Committee acceptance&nbsp;of the union, also called Los Mineros, as an ICEM affiliate. The union has 250,000 members. 
 
Following this regional meeting, the third Tri-National Meeting of Energy Workers of North America was held from 16-18 March in Mexico City. Several unions, along with networks and social movement organizations, sought solutions to the major challenges facing the sector throughout the region. Workers in the energy sector in the three countries have been hard hit by the global financial crisis, with the loss of jobs en masse and the disappearance of social support. 
 
ICEM affiliates CEP of Canada, the USW, and the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) all attended, showing clear intent to reach out to Mexican energy workers. The ICEM coordinated a meeting between Los Mineros and Fellesforbundet of Norway as well. This meeting saw the message passed to the highest level of government in Mexico that repression of labour rights has a negative impact on potential trade. Important elements of the delegation were the Prince of Norway, Fellesforbundet, and representatives from StatoilHydro of Norway. 
 
Los Mineros General Secretary Napoleon Gomez is forced to conduct his union&rsquo;s negotiations from Canada.&nbsp; His success in achieving better wages and working conditions for Los Mineros members makes him a targeted figure by the mining concern Grupo Mex&iacute;co and the Mexican government. 
 
The ICEM thanks Atle H&oslash;ie, International Secretary of Fellesforbundet, for his work in facilitating the meetings with Los Mineros and the Mexican government. 
 
The ICEM calls on its North American affiliates in particular to publicise the repression of trade union rights in Mexico and the efforts made to destroy Los Mineros. 
 
An example last week of the anti-union alliance between Grupo Mex&iacute;co and the Mexican government was the announced closure of the Cananea copper mine, one of the largest copper mines in the world. The company sought government approval to fire the miners who have been on strike since July 2007 over contracts and safety issues at the mine. 
 
&quot;The cause is force majeure (due to) the damage caused to the mine ... Federal labor legislation includes the possibility that the company can terminate labour relations when this occurs,&quot; claimed Grupo Mex&iacute;co spokesman Juan Rebolledo. The case against the workers was bolstered last month when the government published a report stating that the mine was inoperable, due to the damage caused by the striking workers.

North American ICEM Meeting Leads to Solidarity for Mexican Miners

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From the American Solidarity Center Website 
 
The 12 Iraqi union women arrived in Istanbul on 7 March for a four-day visit. They hailed from Erbil, Baghdad, Dohuk, and Basra, and represented oil, chemical, electrical, and petrochemical unions from all of the Iraqi labour federations. The visit was supported by the Solidarity Center and hosted by ICEM&rsquo;s 13 Turkish union affiliates, led by Petrol-İş, whose headquarters are in Istanbul. 

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On their first day, the Iraqi women attended a special union cultural festival featuring music, songs, and dance. A special theatrical presentation depicted workplace violations and demonstrated how unions can be the best worker rights monitors. On their second day, the delegation marched in a glorious 10,000-person-strong parade to mark International Women&rsquo;s Day 2009. The women held banners lettered with greetings from Iraqi working women and their unions. 
 
During the remaining two days, Turkish and Iraqi union women participated in a workshop focusing on working women&rsquo;s situations in Turkey and Iraq, gender concepts and health concerns, introduction to collective bargaining, and the Turkish experience from the case study of Novamed &ndash; a good example of successful women&rsquo;s organising. 

<img height="160" alt="" src="" width="287" />
&ldquo;This was a truly historic meeting,&rdquo; said Solidarity Center Middle East and North Africa Director Heba El-Shazli. &ldquo;It was the first time Iraqi women unionists visited Turkey to exchange views and share experiences with their Turkish sisters.&rdquo; 
 
The Solidarity Center was honoured to support this programme, which could not have happened without the strong support and efforts led by ICEM officers and senior staff: Women&rsquo;s Officer Carol Bruce; Rubber Industry Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan; Director and Regional Contact Person, Middle East and North Africa, and Energy Officer, Jim Catterson; and General Secretary Manfred Warda.

Iraqi Women Join Their Turkish Sisters for Historic International Women’s Day

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The ICEM has intervened in a retaliatory dispute by French-based Michelin at a large tyre factory called Laem Chabang in Chonburi Province, Thailand. The Global Union Federation, together with French trade union affiliate CFDT, brought the matter before Michelin&rsquo;s European Works Council (EWC) and Michelin Group Manager Jean-Dominique Senard at a EWC meeting in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, on 31 March. 
 
The situation in Thailand is serious. On 25 March, local management locked 383 workers off their jobs after they refused to withdraw their names from a petition submitted two weeks earlier. The petition called on management not to unilaterally impose 13% wage cuts, and to engage in consultation with workers&rsquo; representatives over effects of a downturn in the tyre market. 
 
The petition also called on the company to jointly identify solutions with workers, not to unilaterally dictate terms and conditions. It also asked Michelin&rsquo;s Laem Chabang managers to stop forcing workers to sign acceptance forms on the wage cuts, and to quit victimising workers who did not sign the forms. 
<img height="130" alt="" src="" width="350" />
Thai Michelin Unions in Protest 
<img height="180" alt="" src="" width="240" />
Michelin managers responded by suspending eight worker representatives, and imposing a 35% pay cut on workers who refused to disavow the petition. They also reduced their yearly allotment of holidays to six. They then &ndash; on 25 March &ndash; locked out 383 of 458 workers who signed the petition. 
 
&ldquo;This is extreme and harsh behaviour against loyal workers from a company that expects to recover from the global economic crisis,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We have no choice but to demand that the EWC take action. We also call on rubber workers worldwide to take notice, and demand that Michelin rescind this retaliatory punishment.&rdquo; 
 
The tyre workers have been trying to organise with ICEM affiliate Petroleum and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Federation (PCFT) since February, the second time in ten years that staff at Laem Chabang have attempted to unionise. 
 
The plant employs 1,500 staff and produces auto and light truck tyres. Michelin has two other tyre manufacturing plants in Thailand, the Nong Khae plant in Saraburi, employing 1,300 workers, and the Phra Padaeng factory in Samut Prakarn, where 1,500 Thai workers are employed. The latter is unionised by PCFT, with strong union membership. The three plants are 90% owned by Michelin, with the Siam Cement Group holding the remaining 10% stake.

Lockout: Thai Michelin Workers Victimised for Unionising

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A four-day industrial action by 600 contracted tank-truck drivers will end tomorrow morning, 17 June, at 06h00. But ICEM affiliate Unite has said another four-day action could begin on Friday, 20 June, if fair pay awards are not given in bargaining this week. 
 
The strike, which began in the early morning hours of 13 June, is against Royal Dutch Shell and two of its contract haulers, German-based Hoyer UK and J.W. Suckling Transport Ltd., wholly owned by UK&rsquo;s Harris Holdings. 

Unite Assistant General Secretary and negotiator Len McCluskey, while walking picket lines at Shell&rsquo;s Stanlow refinery in Essex over the weekend, said that mediated talks would resume today with the two companies. The weekend strike has crimped petrol supplies at Shell&rsquo;s 950 retail stations across the UK, and has had a knock-on effect since drivers delivering fuel for BP, Total, and Esso have refused to cross picket lines at Shell&rsquo;s depots and terminals. 

McCluskey said late last week that the &ldquo;dispute could have been resolved if Shell had advanced a fraction of the billions of pounds in profit they make every month&rdquo; to the contract haulers. He said with Shell intervention, the dispute could have been settled &ldquo;for a sum smaller than the chairman's pay increase last year.&rdquo;
<img height="120" src="" width="120" alt="" />
Unite Joint General Secretary Tony Woodley also said Shell could resolve the dispute if it increased payments to the contract companies. He told the British newspaper the Guardian that the Anglo-Dutch company makes profits of &pound;1.5 million a month, and it would cost &pound;1 million to settle the dispute. 
 
Unite is seeking a minimum gross salary of &pound;36,000 per year, about &pound;2,000 more than the contract drivers&rsquo; current gross pay. The drivers work an average 48-hour workweek, including an extra shift added every second week. The contract haulers have offered only a 0.5% wage increase. 
 
Ron Webb, Unite&rsquo;s National Secretary for Road Transport and the chief negotiator, said a second wave of strikes is scheduled for 20-24 June if negotiations before UK&rsquo;s Advisory, Conciliation, and Mediation Services (ACAS) beginning today are not successful. Unite has scheduled a mass meeting of drivers, including tank-truck drivers from other petrol and transport companies, for Wednesday, 18 June, in London. 
 
Shell began contracting out its delivery supplies of petrol in the UK in 1992.

Contract Tank-Truck Drivers Ready for Round 2 Petrol Strike in UK

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Negotiations today in Baku, Azerbaijan, between ICEM affiliate Oil and Gas Industry Workers&rsquo; of Azerbaijan (OGWUA), Agip Azerbaijan BV, and Keppel FELS of Singapore will attempt to resolve issues surrounding a strike by 1,000 contractors of Agip that occurred on Wednesday, 11 June.
Agip, a subsidiary of Italy-based Eni, is constructing offshore oil rigs at Caspian Shipyards Co. Ltd., owned and operated by Keppel.
The contractors, mostly Azeri citizens, seek salaries that match those paid foreign workers and corrections to their labour agreements, according to OGWUA Chairman Jahangir Aliyev. The workers also seek improvements in food allowances, and they seek to have their salaries paid in the national currency of Azerbaijan.
<img height="203" alt="" src="" width="280" />
OGWUA Chairman Jahangir Aliyev
The ICEM supports the demands made by the workers, and states that they made the correct decision in turning to OGWUA for help in negotiations.
In late 2005, workers constructing rigs for US-based McDermott International struck for union recognition, and OGWUA stepped in to win important gains. Since, the union which once only represented workers of Azeri state company Socar, has aptly represented 20,000 oil and gas workers in the western Caspian region, workers employed by many oil and gas service companies.

Contract Workers of Agip in the Caspian Strike for Equal Pay

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&nbsp;The European Mine, Chemical, Energy Federation (EMCEF) conducted its Fourth Congress 11-13 June in Prague, Czech Republic. The Congress was attended by over 300 delegates from 29 countries, with participants re-electing President Hubertus Schmoldt and Reinhard Reibsch as General Secretary. 

Schmoldt is the President of ICEM and EMCEF affiliate IGBCE of Germany. Reibsch has served as head of the European federation since the year 2000.
<img height="285" alt="" src="" width="380" />
In his keynote speech, Schmoldt stressed that the interests of European workers cannot fall victim to unbridled market forces. &ldquo;We must ensure that European trade unions move a social dimension to the center of all European policy,&rdquo; he said. 

Schmoldt also emphasized the need for close cooperation and collaboration between European trade union federations in the chemicals, energy, mining, metals, leathers, and textile sectors. EMCEF&rsquo;s General Assembly adopted such a resolution in 2006 in Istanbul, Turkey. 

The Congress heard thorough reports on the Secretariat, as well from EMCEF&rsquo;s four standing committees &ndash; Collective Bargaining, Works Councils, Industrial Relations (including environment, health and safety), and Social Dialogue. 
<img height="260" alt="" src="" width="380" />
Main speakers included John Monks, Secretary General for the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), and Manfred Warda, General Secretary of ICEM, who attended the EMCEF Congress with ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana.
Warda credited the many European trade unions, which play such vital roles in creating global solidarity with ICEM affiliates worldwide. &ldquo;For us in ICEM, the link with EMCEF is of the highest value and of top priority,&rdquo; said Warda. &ldquo;A united, strong and successful EMCEF is an essential base for all that ICEM does.&rdquo; 

The 2.5-million-member EMCEF was created in 1996 with the merger of separate chemicals and mining federations. The federation now has 128 affiliated unions in 35 countries.

EMCEF Congress Concludes in Prague with Re-election of Schmoldt and Reibsch

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