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Annual two-day pay negotiations for 12,000 paperworkers in the UK converting sector produced gains of 3.65% for 2008. The talks, between ICEM affiliates Unite and GMB and the paper employers&rsquo; grouping, Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI), were conducted in late November, and balloting will now begin and conclude in mid-January. 
 
&ldquo;This year&rsquo;s talks were against a back-cloth of mixed fortunes among papermakers,&rdquo; said Unite National Officer Peter Ellis, &ldquo;with some companies making fairly modest profits and one or two causing us some concern. 
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&ldquo;However, our members faced above inflation pressures in 2006-07, across a whole basket of consumables that make up the day-to-day demands on income. We believe 3.65% represents an affordable outcome for the industry, and I will be very disappointed to be dealing with any &lsquo;inability to pay&rsquo; claims.&rdquo; 
 
In October, Unite and the CPI formally put in place a partnership agreement that had been negotiated late last year and early in 2007. The launch occurred inside UK&rsquo;s House of Commons. It is intended to bring a modern approach to employment practices in the paper industry, including full equalities on the job, employee development, skills training, health screening, and regulation of temporary or agency workers.

Pay Deal Put to Ballot for Paperworkers in the UK

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A campaign for equal treatment for agency workers was launched by the Irish trade union federation SIPTU on 19 November at Liberty Hall in Dublin. The campaign is aimed at securing enabling legislation in Ireland to forbid employment agencies from circumventing existing equality provisions in labour legislation. 
 
The 200,000-member Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU) held a press briefing in the afternoon on 19 November, and then conducted a full public hearing that evening with workplace testimony from victimised contract workers. 
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Under the heading &ldquo;An Injury to One Is a Concern to All,&rdquo; SIPTU launched a campaign that includes a petition drive to build support for legislation, as well as materials to secure equal treatment for contract workers in collective agreements. That campaign can be found here <a href="http://www.siptu.ie/agency">www.siptu.ie/agency</a>. 
&ldquo;The abuse of agency workers is the most serious issue of substance in the workplace,&rdquo; stated SIPTU General President Jack O&rsquo;Connor at the launch of the campaign. &ldquo;The absence of legislation to prevent abuse is not only detrimental to those directly affected, but also harms all other workers because it facilitates the undermining of standards,&rdquo; he added. 
SIPTU indicated on the day of the launch that Ireland is one of three EU countries in which temporary workers recruited through agencies can be employed at lesser terms and conditions than those in direct employment. O&rsquo;Connor also hit out at the Irish government for being one of the few countries that is blocking an EU Directive on full rights for contract and agency workers. 
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&ldquo;We cannot continue with the paradox of social partnership on the one hand, while we are virtually unique in Europe in our treatment of agency workers,&rdquo; he said. 
SIPTU estimates there are over 520 employment agencies operating in Ireland. The union is campaigning for agency work to be confined to a period no longer than one month, after which an agency employee must become directly employed by the primary employer.

SIPTU Kicks Off ‘Justice for Agency Workers Campaign’ in Ireland

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Workers, retirees, and students marched in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 17 November, in a mass protest against employers, who are stalling needed salary increases. Some 70,000 protestors, most clad in red bibs, marched in a peaceful assembly to one of Ljubljana&rsquo;s main squares, marking unification of six trade union federations. 
The six union federations jointly called the manifestation to protest employers&rsquo; reluctance to pay fair salaries in this round of wage talks in the EU country. The six include Zveza Svoodnih Sindikatov Slovenije (ZSSS), Neodvisnost (KNSS), KSS-Pergam, Konfederacija &rsquo;90 of Slovenia, Zveza Sindikatov Alternativa, and Zveza Delacev Solidarnost. 
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Slovenia, which adopted the Euro at the beginning of 2007, is beset by rising prices and an inflation rate that reached 5.1% in 2007. The trade unions seek autumn salary increases of 3.5%, and they want a February 2008 increase tied to inflation, instead of the normal, untimely August inflationary hike. The union federations are jointly calling for a system of productivity bonuses, as well. Slovenia, which became a member-nation of the EU in 2005, has seen a growth rate this year of 6.5%. 
 
In respect to the workers&rsquo; 17 November manifestation, President-elect Danilo Turek and Labour Minister Marjeta Cotman attended the mass public event. Earlier, Prime Minister Janez Jansa said protests were the wrong forum to address rising prices and stagnant salaries. The average net salary in Slovenia currently is &euro;820-per-month. 
 
All six leaders of the labour federations addressed the manifestation, and all stated that a general strike was possible if employers did not move from their entrenched wage offer, and were willing to move away from their reluctance to award productivity bonuses to the people generating Slovenia&rsquo;s growth.

Slovenian Union Federations Unite, 70,000 March in Ljubljana on 17 November

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The ICEM&rsquo;s 4th World Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, elected Senzeni Zokwana, president of the National Union of Mineworkers, as President of the Global Union Federation, and Manfred Warda, former head of the International Department of German union IGBCE, and Acting ICEM General Secretary, as General Secretary. 
 
The 22-24 November Congress also saw the full integration of the former World Federation of Industry Workers (WFIW) into the ICEM, as well as the selection of two WFIW representatives to ICEM&rsquo;s Presidium, and two to the Executive Committee. 
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Italo Rodomonti and Manfred Warda signing the agreement
Representing the former WFIW on ICEM's Presidium are Italo Rodomonti, Belgium, and Achille Dutu, Romania. Former WFIW unionists on the Executive Committee include Wilson Viera, Brazil, and Alphonse Tshimbu, Democratic Republic of Congo, with Justin Daerden and Alphonse De Potter, both from Belgium, servings as Executive Committee substitutes. 
 
Also at the Bangkok Congress, elected to the ICEM Presidium from Western Europe were: Augusto Pascussi, Italy; Hubertus Schmoldt, Germany; Phil McNulty, UK; and Ben Roodhuizen (Netherlands) and Paul Lootens (Belgium) to the rotating seat. 
 
Elected to the Presidium from the Nordic Region: Anders Ferbe, Sweden; and Liv Undheim, Norway. Elected to the Presidium from the Central Europe Region: Juraj Blahak, Slovak Republic. Elected to the Presidium from the Eastern Europe/Central Asia Region was: Ivan Mokhnachuk, Russia. 
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The newly elected ICEM Presidium
Elected to the Presidium from the North American Region: Ken Neumann, Canada; and Dave Coles, Canada. Elected to the Presidium from the Asia-Pacific Region: Kiyoshi Ochiai, Japan; and Chueh-an Chuang, Taiwan. 
 
Elected to the Presidium from the Middle East/North Africa Region was Mohamed El Sayed Morsi Aly of Egypt. Elected from the Sub-Saharan Africa Region to the Presidium was Rayford Mbulu, Zambia. 
 
And elected from the Latin America/Caribbean Region was Sergio Novais, Brazil. 
 
The two Women&rsquo;s seats to the ICEM Presidium were selected by the Women&rsquo;s Committee, with Evgenia Esenina, Russia, chair of that committee, and Angeline Chitambo, Zimbabwe, the designees.

ICEM Congress Elects Statutory Officers, Welcomes WFIW

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A dispute between Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd. (NLNG), seven of its contractors at the Nigerian Bonny Island Terminal and ICEM blue-collar oil workers&rsquo; union NUPENG, turned violent on 18 November, causing the union to call a nation-wide strike this week if two demands are not met. 
 
The incident that sparked the strike call was a brutal attack by Nigeria&rsquo;s Joint Military Task Force (JTF) on contract workers &ndash; many of them NUPENG members &ndash; on NLNG property, which blinded one worker in his right eye, and injured 28 other NLNG subcontractors. The JTF fired tear gas directly at the contract workers, attacking with batons. 
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The contract worker who was blinded is NUPENG member Ibifuro Pepple. NUPENG arranged for the victim to be fitted with an artificial eye, with surgery set for 11 December by M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF) at a hospital in Lagos. 
 
The contract workers protested because NLNG reneged on the signing of an agreement granting them union recognition through NUPENG. The agreement was in place after the Nigerian Ministry of Labour and Productivity certified recognition, but NLNG twice backed away from signing the accord, the second time on 18 November. Contract workers at the Bonny Island transfer terminal in Finima then began their protest. NLNG responded by calling in the JTF. 
 
NLNG is owned jointly by the Nigerian government (49%), Shell (26.5%), Total (15%), and Eni&rsquo;s Agip (10.4%). 
 
NUPENG&rsquo;s Central Working Committee, at a meeting on 27 November, issued a seven-day national strike notice, demanding prosecution of the JTF officers responsible for the violence and full recognition of NUPENG as representative for the contract workers of the NLNG&rsquo;s suppliers. The ICEM supports those demands, and calls on the Nigerian government, as well as the multinationals involved, to give full priority to resolving this unionisation issue, and the other outstanding grievances brought by the workers and NUPENG. 
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NUPENG leaders and government officials will meet today, 3 December, to discuss the critical situation. 
 
On November 26, NUPENG&rsquo;s Eastern Zonal members at NLNG began the first sympathy strike against the energy company for its indiscriminate, 18 November, actions. Other strikes at NLNG&rsquo;s five major worksites could occur as early as tomorrow, and other sympathy strikes could spread throughout Nigeria&rsquo;s energy sector. 
 
Following the 27 November NUPENG Central Committee meeting, leaders of PENGASSAN &ndash; ICEM&rsquo;s white-collar affiliate in Nigeria &ndash; stood with their comrades in supporting the declared strike. Senior staff workers at NLNG, represented by PENGASSAN, are firm in their belief that contract workers deserve the right to union recognition with NUPENG.

Nigeria: Police Use Violence to Break Up Unionising Subcontractors, 1 Worker Blinded

On the eve of World AIDS Day, 1 December, the ICEM leadership recommitted to fight the battle to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS through awareness, education, and poverty eradication campaigns. The ICEM&rsquo;s 4th World Congress, held 22-24 November in Bangkok, Thailand, affirmed that commitment. 
 
&ldquo;As the newly-elected leaders, we reaffirm ICEM&rsquo;s commitment to fight HIV/AIDS,&rdquo; said ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana and General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;Hundreds of union leaders representing 180 affiliates in 75 countries signed the pledge for World AIDS Day at our Congress.&rdquo; 
 
That pledge, signed by not only the 840 trade unions leaders attending the Bangkok Congress, but taken back to national unions for thousands more signatures, commits the trade unionists to take the fight inside the workplace. 
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It commits to outright rejection of all forms of discrimination and victimisation of people living with HIV/AIDS; it recognises that the gender dimension of HIV/AIDS, and promises to fight for equal gender relations and the empowerment of women; and, in maintaining ICEM&rsquo;s continued work in this area, it encourages voluntary counselling and testing of workers and family members, as well as providing support for those who disclose their HIV-positive status. 
 
The pledge also makes demands of employers and governments. It demands that companies negotiate policies with trade union that are in sync with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work; it calls on employers to implement awareness-raising and prevention programmes jointly with trade unions; it call on firms operating in remote geographic areas with little or no health services to take responsibility for providing care and treatment; and it promises to undertake efforts to obtain affordable drugs from pharmaceutical companies and production of high-quality generics for those afflicted with the virus. 
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Regarding governments, the pledge advocates access for all to public health, including free or affordable antiretroviral treatments; it promises to promote legislation on discrimination and social protection; and it promises to lobby donor countries for accelerated financial resources for the global fight against HIV/AIDS. 
 
&ldquo;The ICEM and its affiliates are strategically positioned in our sectors, and in our thousands of workplaces, to play a direct role in stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS,&rdquo; said Zokwana and Warda. &ldquo;On World AIDS Day 2007, we call on all social partners to intensify campaigns in order to reverse the HIV/AIDS pandemic.&rdquo; 
 
The International Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) is a 20-million-member Global Union Federation based in Brussels, Belgium.

ICEM Reconfirms Commitment to Fight HIV/AIDS Pandemic

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Contract workers represented by ICEM UK affiliate Unite began the first of industrial actions at a Kimberly-Clark paper mill in Northfleet, Kent, on 12 October. The 38 workers of TDG, formerly called Transport Development Group, staged a 12-hour strike on that day, and they plan a further 24-hour strike over tomorrow and Wednesday, 23-24 October. 
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The London-based employer responded by replacing the members of the Amicus section of Unite on 12 October. The dispute is over lack of parity in 2007 pay raises between Kimberly-Clark workers at Northfleet, also members of Unite, and the TDG workers. In previous years, the company had matched raises that Kimberly-Clark workers received. 
 
At another UK tissue mill of Kimberly-Clark near Barrow-in-Furness, in Cumbria in northwest England, TDG did just that this year, granting a 4.5% pay increase. The TDG workers at both sites work in the warehouses of the American-based company. TDG has provided contract services for the paper-maker since 2002, and is a major European logistical and supply-chain distributor of chemicals and consumer goods. 
 
Trade unionists are encouraged to send letters of support to Unite&rsquo;s representative, Paul Baker, at <a href="mailto:paul.baker@unitetheunion.org">paul.baker@unitetheunion.org</a>.

Paper Mill Logistic Workers Take Industrial Action in UK

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Despite increased labour and human rights pressure on the Islamic regime, Iran&rsquo;s government is still refusing access and giving misleading reports on the condition of imprisoned transport union leader Mansour Osanloo. The International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) is calling recent efforts to reach Osanloo by Indonesian activists a &ldquo;cynical catalogue of dirty tricks&rdquo; by Iran. 
 
The government assured Indonesian trade unionists seeking to visit Osanloo in Tehran&rsquo;s Evin prison the week of 8 October that the he was receiving treatment for a two-year-old eye injury. The Indonesian activists, as well as Osanloo&rsquo;s wife, Parvenah, were told by authorities that they could not visit the 47-year-old trade unionist because he was receiving treatment.
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But a prison doctor admitted to the Indonesians later that, if he is not treated within the next two weeks, he could go blind. The Indonesians that visited Iran were Hanafi Rusrandi, Seafarers' Union president and ITF's national coordinating committee chairman, and Syukur Sarto, the general secretary of national centre FSPSI.
&ldquo;The Iranian government is piling outrage on outrage, digging deeper and deeper into a barrel of dirty tricks,&rdquo; said ITF general David Cockroft. &ldquo;All the evidence we have is that this is a cold blooded and deliberate attempt to weaken and undermine the most significant union leader in Iran today.&rdquo; 
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Osanloo was arrested for the third time on 10 July 2007, following a tour of European labour institutions and labour unions, in which he spoke openly of labour abuses and restrictions on freedom of association in Iran. He has been in prison since. In May 2005, he sustained eye injuries when beaten by Iranian security forces. Osanloo is the leader of Sherkat-e Vahed, the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Workers&rsquo; Union. 
 
The ITF, last week, released a video entitled &ldquo;Freedom Will Come&rdquo; on his story and the story of bus workers&rsquo; efforts to organise in Tehran. It was posted late last week on YouTube and will shortly be available on DVD. The London-based Global Union Federation has also launched a petition campaign in support of Osanloo. It can be found <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/freeosanloo.cfm">here</a>.&nbsp;

‘Dirty Tricks’ Imposed by Iranian Government over Imprisonment of Mansour Osanloo

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A series of rolling strikes will occur at Unilever plants in The Netherlands until the Dutch foods and chemicals company backs away from a restructuring plan that targets as many as 12,000 European workers for the unemployment queue.
Late on the evening of 9 October, Dutch workers &ndash; led by FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Voeding &ndash; struck six plants for 40 hours. The strikes followed a failure of negotiations toward a new contract and Unilever&rsquo;s unilateral decision to initially close three Dutch plants, costing almost 500 jobs.
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ICEM at a Unilever Protest in July 2007

Last week, on 16 October, workers again mounted strikes in the company&rsquo;s home country, the first coming at the Loosdrecht plant, a maker of Knorr food products. The next day, workers at Vlaardingen, where consumer products Lever and Cif products are made, struck. Unilever announced plant closings for those two plants, as well as at its Delft plant, where Calv&eacute; food products are made. 
 
&ldquo;We see no need for this,&rdquo; stated FNV Bondgenoten&rsquo;s Lucas Vermaat, FNV Bondgenoten&rsquo;s chief negotiator with the company. &ldquo;For Unilever, this is solely about cutting costs in our country. Beyond that, the directors have no strategy to increase revenue. There is no reason to close factories and not to guarantee jobs.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM and the Dutch unions call on European unions to monitor the transfer of production to other plants during the rolling strikes. The ICEM also is calling on all global affiliates to write messages of support to Dutch Unilever workers through Vermaat at <a href="mailto:l.vermaat@bg.fnv.nl">l.vermaat@bg.fnv.nl</a>. 
 
In early August, the company announced that is was embarking on a four-year reorganisation that would cut 20,000 jobs worldwide, the majority of which would come in Europe. It would close or dramatically reduce production at some 50 of its 300 global operations. Regarding the European closures, Unilever did this without consulting with the European Works Council of the company. 
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European unions are gearing up for a week of actions against the Anglo-Dutch firm in the first week of December, which will include a mass march and rally on 4 December in Rotterdam.
Meanwhile, the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF) has asked for protest letters over the company&rsquo;s conduct at a foods and tea factory in Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan. Management has called in armed militia and elite police troops to quell workers&rsquo; protests over a plan to replace 950 permanent jobs, out of 1,200, with casual and contract workers. Unions are invited to lodge protests with Unilever Pakistan Ltd.&rsquo;s External Communications manager, Fareshteh Aslan, at <a href="mailto:fareshteh.aslam@unilever.com">fareshteh.aslam@unilever.com</a>.

Strikes Begin as Unilever Takes Wrecking Ball to Workers’ Jobs

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Today, in S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil, a country-wide network of Freudenberg workers is being launched in the rubber, chemicals, metals, and textile sectors. The meetings today and tomorrow, 23 October, will be attended by six unions and is organised by ICEM affiliate Rubber Workers Union of Brazil (FUB) and ICEM Vice President Sergio Novais. 
 
The conference will include representatives from all six Freudenberg plants in S&atilde;o Paulo state, the Latin American Rubber and Tyre Workers' Federation (FUTINAL), and ICEM affiliate IGBCE from Germany. Also due to play a key role in the formation is Bernd Schneider, the secretary and chief workers&rsquo; representative from the Freudenberg European Works Council. Schneider is an IGBCE member.
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Brazil is the major manufacturing country of Freudenberg in Latin America, where 1,400 company workers are employed. The German company also has manufacturing operations in Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela. The aim of the 22-23 October conference is to establish a workers&rsquo; network in Brazil, and then to expand network activities to the other Latin American countries next year. 
 
Discussion will occur on the ICEM&rsquo;s Global Framework Agreement with Freudenberg, as well as on common work aspects and problems inside the six plants. Delegates attending will also visit Freudenberg-NOK&rsquo;s rubber and metals suspension plant in Diadema.
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Worker representatives from that plant, as well as the company&rsquo;s Kl&uuml;bler Lubrificantes plant in Baurueri, its Vibracoustic business in Taubat&eacute;, Brugmann business in Campinas, and textile operations in Jacare&iacute; and Novo Hamburgo will attend. Two other operations in Diadema &ndash; Freudenberg&rsquo;s after-market Corteco production of rubber gaskets and seals and its Simrit auto components business, both also shared partly by Japanese-based NOK &ndash; will have worker representatives attending.
The formation of the workers&rsquo; network is getting major support and participation from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) of Germany.

Network of Freudenberg Brazilian Workers Begins Today

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