English

Español

Français

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action Plan 2025-2029

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Campaigns

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Women

Youth

LGBTQI+

Gender, equality, diversity and inclusion (GEDI)

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected Officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Press

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	from IMF

	From Seoul to Pretoria, Geneva to Mexico City, unions are taking joint action during the week of 19-25 February 19-25 to urge the government of Mexico to stop its attack on independent trade unions and freedom of association.

	International mobilizations kicked off in the main square of Mexico City on 19 February, in remembrance of 65 miners who died in the Pasta de Conchos mine explosion on that date six years ago. On 21 February, actions took place in Mexico, Geneva and London.

	And the United Steelworkers (USW) used the eve of the Week of Action to again condemn the actions of Canadian mining company Excellon for its damaging behaviour in Mexico.&nbsp;Excellon&rsquo;s only Mexican operation, the Platosa mine, brings problems for workers, landowners, and the environment.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 227px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	The Tri-National Solidarity Alliance, which joins unions from Canada, Mexico and the US held a meeting of Solidarity at the headquarters of the Mexican Electricians Union (SME) in Mexico City.&nbsp; Speakers at the event, including IMF Executive Committee member and exiled leader of the National Union of Miners and Metal Workers of Mexico (SNTMMRM) Napole&oacute;nG&oacute;mez (via video conference), denounced the Mexican government&rsquo;s attacks on fundamental workers&rsquo; rights and called for the implementation of ILO recommendations adopted by the Governing Body in March 2011.

	In Switzerland, a group of 20 ICEM, IMF, UNI and IUF activists held a small action outside of the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the UN in Geneva. Manfred Warda, Jyrki Raina, Philip Jennings, Fernando Lopes, Kemal &Ouml;zkan met with Mr. Juan Jos&eacute; G&oacute;mez Camacho, Ambassador to the Mexico mission.

	Discussions between the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and trade union Fellesforbundet are underway ahead of a planned visit to Mexico by the Foreign Ministry later this month. The union has been briefing Norway&rsquo;s government on the issue of Protection Contracts in Mexico and the ongoing attacks on fundamental worker freedoms.

	Mexico&rsquo;s Embassy in London met with a delegation from the Trades Union Congress (TUC), and unions Unite and GMB, and Amnesty International and the Southern and Eastern Regional TUC on 21 February. Similar actions are planned for major cities in the US, including Chicago, Tucson, Boston and Denver, and in Korea, Pakistan, South Africa and Canada.

	Unions around the world are also supporting the global action by sending protest letter to the Mexican government in care of their respective embassies and consulates.

	For more information go to: <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/Mexico2012">www.imfmetal.org/Mexico2012</a>

Week of Action Again Shines on Mexico’s Trade Union Abuses

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Job security and job creation was the foundation behind a new two-year national labour agreement between social partners in Denmark. That came together in marathon bargaining over the weekend, 11-12 February, in framework talks for 240,000 Danish manufacturing workers and 6,000 enterprises, the latter represented by Dansk Industri.

	The trade unions, led by the eight making up Co-Industri, including 3F, Dansk Metal and HK/Pivat, in concert with the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), set an agenda of wage moderation, instead focusing on winning excellent and precedent-setting job preservation protections such as training, seniority, and reduced work hours at full pay for both old and young workers.

	This industrial social accord now establishes the parameters for other work sectors. The agreement will run from 1 March 2012 to 1 March 2014. The national industrial agreement did establish minimum wage guideposts, but exact wage increases will now be negotiated at local levels and inside company agreements.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 58px;height: 57px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	The framework agreement grants training at full pay with business downturns and when reductions in work time occur, and it also allows older workers to reduce their working time within five years of retirement by continuing their income levels through salaries and partial pension benefits. Workers will also have the option to tap into current pension plans as a supplement to salaries.

	A key element in the new agreement is an additional &euro;.05-per-hour worked will be added to the national Industrial Training fund.

	Employee discretion in taking training options increases from two weeks to six weeks, in some cases, and full seniority is granted to workers when they are called back from lay-offs within nine months. Previously, it was six months. As well, paid sick leave occurs after six months on a job rather than the previous nine months.

	The new pact is also kinder to lower-income earners and gives better pay-outs when such workers are laid off. Parental leave was made more flexible and added pension accrual was put in place for weekend, holiday or extra work performed.

	The recommended minimum wage increase is &euro;.18-per-hour effective 1 March, and the same amount again on 1 March 2013. A pay supplement of 1.4% each year is available for performing difficult work, and apprentices, trainees and interns will get a 2.25% pay hike in each year.

	The bargaining, which began in early January, nearly reached dispute when HK/Privat , the Commercial and Clerical Workers&rsquo; Union, sought to drop the 50% benchmark regarding number of staff needed before a collective agreement takes effect. A compromise was struck that gives employers the opportunity to sign labour agreements without the 50% threshold and HK/Privat coverage also was expanded to include administrative staff working as trainees and college students.

	The agreement was widely praised in Denmark as the necessary building block to restore some 80,000 industrial and manufacturing jobs that have been lost in the country since the onset of the financial crisis.

Danish Industrial Contract Gives Job Security Prime Seating

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="100" />

	Locked-out members of Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos &nbsp;d&rsquo;Alma Local 9490, the United Steelworkers (USW), took their fight against Rio Tinto Alcan to Qu&eacute;bec&rsquo;s largest city, last Friday, 17 February, where Alcan CEO Jacynth C&ocirc;t&eacute; was part of a spurious forum on youth in employment, sponsored by the Board of Trade Metropolitan Montr&eacute;al.

	Some 200 of 780 metalworkers from Alcan&rsquo;s Alma aluminium smelter in the Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region, Qu&eacute;bec, boarded buses and travelled 460 kilometres to Montr&eacute;al for a noisy protest at this business luncheon, their first manifestation away from the 488,000-tonne-per-year smelter. They were joined by another 100 steelworkers from Montr&eacute;al, and some 100 college students who joined the USW rally in mocking protest to a future of youth theme that now sees business teaming with the Liberal provincial government of Qu&eacute;bec to raise their university tuition fees.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 248px;height: 161px" width="248" />

	17 February Manifestation, Montr&eacute;al

	This &ldquo;Hot Issues@Lunch&rdquo; theme was billed to &ldquo;foster the success of the next generation of Qu&eacute;becers.&rdquo; &nbsp;&nbsp;The Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos d&rsquo;Alma found deep irony in Jacynth C&ocirc;t&eacute; participating, since Alcan in Alma is using a lock-out to replace C$36-an-hour permanent jobs with outsourced and presumably younger workers at C$16-an-hour.

	C&ocirc;t&eacute; was not expected to address the lockout at the hot-plate lunch, but when pressed by reporters on the sidelines, she called the dispute a &ldquo;regional issue&rdquo; and &ldquo;it will be settled in Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean&rdquo; by managers who &ldquo;have my full confidence.&rdquo;

	Earlier last week, when the lockout entered week seven and with the remote mining and manufacturing region starting to feel the economic effects of a lost wage base, one such manager told Reuters he &ldquo;wouldn&rsquo;t put a timeline to (talks restarting) right now because nothing is scheduled.&rdquo;

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 199px;height: 159px" width="199" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	Dan Roy and Marc Maltais

	foto: France Paradis/Le-Lac-St-Jean

	With aluminium prices hovering now at very low, the Alma lockout serves as a convenient strategy to restrict supply to lift prices. It also fits Rio Tinto&rsquo;s strategy of divesting and devaluing Alcan by C$8.9 billion in view of its US$39 billion purchase of the Canadian company in 2007, although the modern and high-tech tooled Alma smelter, with its low-cost hydroelectric supply, will not likely be jettisoned.

	Perhaps this should have been a more apt business theme to the Board of Trade elite last week, and it certainly best explains the anger of metalworkers and students alike gathered on the other side of the barricades. In this vein &ndash; with Rio Tinto&rsquo;s share price dropping &ndash; it is worth mentioning that C&ocirc;t&eacute; herself exhibited a timely corporate mentality last week by shedding 3,671 shares of Rio Tinto to pocket US$213,500, money not likely to find its way to Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean.

	USW District Five Director Daniel Roy addressed the disparity between full-time, family-supporting jobs in the region to the sub-contract and lower-wage jobs that Rio Tinto is trying create with the. &ldquo;Accepting this would cause a dramatic downward spiral not only for the workers but for members of the community, which would see income, local business sales and tax revenues drop precipitously.&rdquo;

	USW Local 9490 President Marc Maltais added, &ldquo;By using subcontractors to do the work of union members, we are asked to concede on behalf of future generations. This is an attack on our children and grandchildren.&rdquo;

	The buses departed Montr&eacute;al late on Friday afternoon for the return trip to Alma, but first stopped at a plant-gate demonstration in Sorel, Qu&eacute;bec, where workers and members of ICEM-affiliated FIM-CSN (Conf&eacute;d&eacute;ration des Syndicats Nationaux) at a Rio Tinto Iron and Titanium metal powders plant lent their support. This stop again depicts the long-erected barriers between Canadian trade unions that Local 9490 are erasing inside this lockout.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 114px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	Rio Tinto Alcan CEO, Jacynth C&ocirc;t&eacute;

	With Canada currently undergoing an unprecedented rash of corporate hostility, it is notable to witness trade unions and other groups galvanising behind victimised union workers.

	Last week, members of Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 2301 at a Rio Tinto Alcan aluminium smelter in Kitimat, British Colombia, voted to take C$1-an-hour of their pay and donate it to &nbsp;Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos&nbsp; d&rsquo;Alma Local 9490. That represents C$60,000 per month.

	On 8 February, the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada contributed C$25,000 to the Alma metalworkers, and a day later the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) contributed C$10,000. USW Local 9700, one of the first unions to respond at the time of the 30 December lockout and representing Alcoa ABI workers at B&eacute;cancour, Qu&eacute;bec, voted unanimously to draw C$25-per-week from their paychecks, donating C$25,000 weekly to Local 9490.

	Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos&nbsp; d&rsquo;Alma&rsquo;s&nbsp; journey to Montr&eacute;al to confront Rio Tinto Alcan CEO Jacynth C&ocirc;t&eacute; is just the first sally outward. This week Local 9490 leaders will visit Rio Tinto&rsquo;s borax miners in California, where members of ICEM affiliate International Longshore &amp; Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30 defended themselves courageously in a Rio Tinto-imposed lockout. And they&rsquo;ll follow that solidarity visit with to Australia to meet with unions represented Rio Tinto there.

	On March 31, a day after the ICEM North American region meets in Alma, a manifestation will occur there with scores of global trade union leaders attending. And on 1 April, a workshop will occur in Alma to verse an exact fightback strategy against Rio Tinto on the global level.

Locked-out Alcan Workers Take Dispute to Business Doorstep

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	From the ITGLWF website

	On the evening of 12 February 2012, the President and General Secretary of the Coats Bangladesh Ltd. Employees Union went to the Coats Head Office at Novo Tower, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka in order to try to meet and discuss with company management with a view to resolving an industrial dispute.

	Instead of negotiating with the union leaders, company officials confiscated their mobile phones and forcibly detained them in their building overnight only releasing them when trade union colleagues alerted the local newspaper media of their disappearance.

	Management at the thread factory called Coats Ltd. in Bangladesh had failed to reach agreement with trade union negotiators. Having exhausted the bargaining procedures, a vote of the workers resulted in 98.12% in favour of strike action.&nbsp;The management somehow obtained a court order declaring the strike illegal.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 180px;height: 83px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	The workers at Coats Ltd. are paid poverty wages of only BD TK1,625 (US $18.90). The trade unions in Bangladesh consider BD TK7,000 to be the minimum that could be considered a living wage.&nbsp; During the negotiations, the local trade union negotiators reduced their demand from 100% to 30% pay rise.&nbsp;The union demands also included increases in housing and other allowances all of which were refused by the management negotiators.&nbsp; Despite trade union compromises the employer remained intransigent and refused to bargain in good faith.

	The Coats Employees&rsquo; Union is part of the Bangladesh Garments Textile &amp; Leather Workers Federation (BGTLWF), which is an affiliate of the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF).&nbsp; The BGTLWF has called for solidarity from the wider trade union movement.&nbsp; The ITGLWF is preparing a complaint to the OECD Contact Point for the UK over the matter.&nbsp; Coats Plc. is based in the UK and is a leading global company that manufactures thread.

	The ITGLWF has written to Mr Paul Forman, CEO of Coats Plc. demanding that they intervene.

	Klaus Priegnitz, ITGLWF General Secretary, said to the Coats CEO, &ldquo;Your employees have clearly been mistreated and exploited for some considerable time.&nbsp; Theunion hasacted responsibly and with restraint in pursuing their justifiable and moderate demands.&nbsp; We call on you to instruct your local management to engage in constructive dialogue with the local trade union with a view to resolving this dispute on terms which are acceptable to the workers.&rdquo;

	See the joint ICEM-IMF letter to Coats management <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/18%20ICEM-IMFletterCoats%20Bangladesh%2022Feb.pdf">here</a>.

Bangladesh Union Leaders Held Captive by Factory Managers

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
The Independent Trade Union of Miners&rsquo; of Ukraine (NPGU) held its Sixth Congress at mid-month in Kiev and besides hearing a 2005 to 2011 report on the union&rsquo;s activities, the Congress elected governing bodies and adopted several resolutions. 
 
Mikhail Volynets was re-elected President of the Independent Miners Union by secret ballot. The Congress was attended by the ICEM and representatives from the ILO, the US Solidarity Center, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) of Germany, representatives of Ukrainian ministries and departments, deputies of the Verkhovnaya Rada, or Parliament, the leaders of other trade unions of Ukraine. 
<img src="" width="209" height="207" alt="" />
Mikhail Volynets (left) and NPGU Vice President Anatoly Akimochkin
Delegates and speakers voiced concern that the new law on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, adopted by the Rada, with many stating that it jeopardizes the gains made over the past 20 years. Specific resolutions of the Congress singled out harmful passages of the Social Dialogue law regarding pension reform and health and safety in Ukraine&rsquo;s coal mines. 
 
The Congress also resolved to: demand that the state establish a system of preferences for employees who are actively involved in creating safe working conditions and for employers who prove that they maintain a steady level of safe working conditions; demand that the work state mine regulatory agencies do be judged on hours worked without incidents, accidents, and fatalities, rather than on the number of orders, reprimands, and fines issued; demand that public institutions in the field of occupational safety and health should be an integral part of safety and health management systems. 
 
Delegates also called on the Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers not to adopt the draft law on pension reform; develop wage reform aimed at legalizing the maximum wage and to significantly increase the wage proportion in a company's production costs to the level of 20-25% to serve as the basis for calculating pension contributions; eliminate the corruption phenomenon in the extractive industries where the shadow market of coal reaches three million tons per year, and to close coal mining off to so-called &ldquo;slave labour,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Kopanki&rdquo;; and improve legislation for heightened liability against employers for violating workers&rsquo; rights.

Independent Miners’ Union of Ukraine Holds Sixth Congress

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
On 13 May in Madrid, two great unions from the Spanish UGT confederation merged to form a new union, the 150,000-member FITAG-UGT, the UGT&rsquo;s new union for food and industrial workers. 
 
Dissolution congresses of the two predecessor unions, FTA-UGT for food and FIA-UGT for chemicals and industrial, preceded the founding congress, with delegates voting better than 97% in both congresses to go ahead with the merger. Antonio Deusa Pedrazo was elected General Secretary of FITAG-UGT. The new Executive is made up of 17 members, six of whom are women. Roughly 32% of the new union&rsquo;s membership is women. 
 
The union will negotiate 31 collective agreements in sectors that cover 10% of Spain&rsquo;s total industrial base. 
<img alt="" src="" width="239" height="159" />
Mari Luz Rodriguez
The founding Congress made it clear that special attention will be given to sectors that are more difficult to organise such as ones containing small- and medium-sized companies. One focus will be immigrants who work in great numbers in some of the sectors that the new federation will represent. 
 
Spanish Secretary of State for Employment, Gender and Youth, Mari Luz Rodriguez, spoke at the founding 
Congress. She recognized the new union for its reinforced union structures and for defending the interests of workers. 
 
FITAG-UGT also made it clear it was laying the foundation for facing the challenges that confront trade unions, both at national and international levels. Those include: to respond to globalization and fight neoliberalism; strengthen the union role and strengthen European Works Council roles in facing multinationals; to make the most of international trade unions; to demand and get more stable and secure employment with more rights; and to demand more appropriate social protections and defend the welfare state. 
 
To meet these goals, FITAG-UGT resolved to organise more workers in all sectors that the new union serves, and to get more shop stewards to be present in all workplaces and to increase the union&rsquo;s influence. The union believes better training, information, and structures will be put in place to achieve these goals. 
 
ICEM affiliate FIA-UGT itself is a product of mergers in Spain&rsquo;s labour movement. The former Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union first merged with UGT branches representing oil and gas workers and then merged again with branches of miners and textile workers.

Industrial, Food Workers of UGT in Spain Merge

<img alt="" src="" width="180" height="55" />
Mega sports events, like the Olympics and the World Cup, can have a tremendous positive influence on workers. Too often, however, we hear stories of accidents on construction sites and horrendous sweatshop-like conditions in factories. Workers who build the stadia and manufacture the merchandise suffer behind the glamorous facade of the games. 
The Play Fair alliance, which joins unions and NGOs from around the world, began in 2003 and since then has been campaigning to put workers&rsquo; rights on the agenda of the International Olympic Committee and FIFA. Many of Play Fair&rsquo;s demands have not been met, but the campaign has had some positive achievements. For the London 2012 Olympics all official merchandise must be sourced from factories which pay workers a living wage and provide &ldquo;regular employment.&rdquo; Workers in these factories must have access to a complaints mechanism, and grievances must be investigated in a timely fashion. For the first time, the 2016 Olympic bid questionnaire asked prospective hosts to demonstrate how labour standards would be taken into account in making sourcing decisions for licensed goods. 
<img alt="" src="" width="132" height="197" />
In addition to sporting bodies, the Play Fair campaign has been targeting the brands and retailers who supply the team kits worn at sports events. Companies like adidas, which last year paid its board members almost &euro;11.5 million, and Puma, which have a sponsorship deal with Usain Bolt reportedly worth &pound;21 million, yet who refuse to commit to paying workers in their supply chain a living wage. Progress in improving brand practices has been slow, but a significant step forward will be made next month when Indonesian suppliers, their buyers, unions and NGOs come together to sign a protocol guaranteeing unions the right to freedom of association, including releasing an agreed number of union officials from work duties and providing adequate office and communication spaces, and time off for workers for union activities. 
In 2014 and 2016 Brazil will become the first country ever to host the World Cup and the Olympics within two years of each other. Taking advantage of this unique opportunity, Brazilian unions from the construction and textile sectors have joined forces to demand decent work for all those who contribute to the games. 250 people attended the public launch of the campaign on 1 April in front of the main gate of the Maracana Stadium, and the ITUC, BWI, ITGLWF and their affiliates exchanged messages of solidarity. 
The prevalent theme of the messages was a demand that the Brazilian World Cup and Olympics leave a positive legacy based on respect for workers&rsquo; rights.

A Sporting Chance for Workers: Launch of Play Fair Brazil

<img alt="" src="" width="180" height="55" />
In March, the ICEM had the assistance of the IMF in a public campaign in support of ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş in Turkey to get Standard Profil, a manufacturer of rubber products, to begin bargaining. Petrol-İş had gained well past the necessary 50% of Standard Profil&rsquo;s 2,300 employees workers seeking union representation, and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security certified that the company&rsquo;s product line fell into the Petrol-İş negotiating jurisdiction of petroleum, chemicals, and rubber. 
The purpose of the public campaign, which included global letters of endorsement to Petrol-İş by unions and Works Councils representing Standard Profil customers in the automotive sector, was to dissuade the company from appealing the Ministry&rsquo;s industrial sector determination. The union called on the company, in the words of Petrol-İş President Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkin, to &ldquo;start with mutual good will and consideration of mutual interests.&rdquo;
<img alt="" src="" width="217" height="201" />
&nbsp;Petrol-İş President Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkin
The maker of rubberized automotive sealing systems had already engaged with the union over freedom of association and workers&rsquo; rights training through intervention by the Multinational Investment Guarantee Agency, a monitoring agency of the World Bank&rsquo;s International Finance Corp (IFC). The IFC has loaned Standard Profil development money at its two factories in D&uuml;zce and Bursa and criteria for the loan compels the company to foster proper social and environmental conduct. 
In April, the company ignored the workers&rsquo; olive branch made by Petrol-İş and filed an appeal with the government. The company claims its jurisdiction is in the metal industry. Such an appeal in Turkey is meant to thwart union recognition and negotiations by tying the matter up in court procedures for two years or more. And following jurisdiction outcome, an appeal on the 50% plus one is automatic, which further binds the hands of legitimate workers&rsquo; rights to join a union and bargaining collectively. 
This is a main reason why Turkey&rsquo;s archaic labour code is currently under scrutiny at the ILO. 
Despite Standard Profil&rsquo;s labour rights training in 2008-09 under its IFC responsibilities, the company signalled ill-will in sync with its appeal last month by sacking five union activists, including one who is a disabled worker. 
In fact, ICEM and Petrol-İş developed the public campaign with a back-up strategy in the event Standard Profil turned hostile. The Istanbul-based company manufactures rubber sealers for doors, boot, engine covers, and other seals for automobiles. It was owned by Bancroft Private Equity LLP but in early May was sold to the Pawan Ruia Group of India. 
The Ruia Group is heavily involved in the rubber industry and holds big equity stakes in Dunlop Tyre, Monotana Tyre, and Falcon Tyre of India. It also holds a big share of the automotive fastener market, making it a strategic company in the automotive supply chain. ICEM and Petrol-İş will now focus on that fact.

ICEM at Standard Profil: Halting Union Avoidance in Turkey’s Rubber Sector

<img alt="" src="" width="160" height="78" />
The ICEM today expressed sadness and anger at the deaths of two members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6500 in Sudbury, Ontario, on Wednesday night, 8 June. The two miners died 900 metres underground at Vale&rsquo;s Stobie nickel and copper mine when an overflow of broken rock, sediment, and water &ndash; known as muck &ndash; buried them. 
 
The miners were identified yesterday as Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26. The two men were operating a scooptram at the No. 7 ore pass inside Stobie. An ore pass is a junction where ore is dropped from one level to the next. Sixty miners were working in the mine on the night shift when the fatalities occurred. 
 
In a letter today to USW President Leo Gerard, himself a former mineworker in Sudbury, USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann, and USW Local 6500 President Rick Bertrand, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda stated: &ldquo;It is a terrible tragedy and makes clear the inherent dangers for workers whose livelihoods are dependent on the mining industry. Please convey the sympathies of the entire ICEM global family of unions to the families of the two miners, as well as to all union members of Local 6500.&rdquo; (See the full <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/54.ICEM.USW.Sudbury%20Deaths.Canada.10June.pdf">ICEM letter</a> here.) 

<img alt="" src="" width="144" height="168" />
Vale&rsquo;s Stobie nickel and copper mine
The ICEM also noted that USW&rsquo;s expert team of safety and health investigators will probe the tragic circumstances to uncover what went wrong and to ensure a similar tragedy does not happen again. The ICEM stated the sad irony of the 8 June is that only eight days before the miners&rsquo; deaths, Vale was honoured with an award by the Canadian Institute of Mining as having the safest two metal mines in Canada. 
 
Although the mines receiving the award were at Vale&rsquo;s nickel operations in Thompson, Manitoba, mines from Sudbury won the same award consecutively from 2006 to 2009. 
 
In a statement, Local 6500 President Bertrand said, &ldquo;The Steelworkers will be involved in this investigation every step of the way. Once the investigation is complete we will work hard for the workplace to be restored to safe condition before it starts up again.&rdquo; 
 
The Stobie mine in Sudbury consists of two adjoining mines, an open cast one and an underground one where the tragedy occurred. Canada has not ratified ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention.

ICEM Saddened by Mine Deaths of Two Steelworkers at Vale in Sudbury, Canada

<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="59" />
Suez Environnement, a subsidiary of French-based GDF SUEZ, was hit with an OECD petition pursuant to the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises yesterday by ICEM affiliate Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA). The petition was for alleged environmental failures and unfair labour practice complaints issued by the US government against United Water, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Suez Environnement. 
 
GDF SUEZ is signatory to a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with three Global Union Federations (GUFs), including ICEM and Public Services International (PSI). Both ICEM and PSI have jointly criticised the parent company for the insolent social conduct of it&rsquo;s subsidiary in the US Suez Environnement is 35% held by GDF SUEZ. 
 
The US National Labour Relations Board authorised unfair labour practice complaints against United Water at two separate locations where the UWUA represents workers and is now negotiating with United Water over renewal agreements. The US agency&rsquo;s charge against management involves failure to provide relevant information to the union related to bargaining. 
 
United Water is demanding steep cuts in employee retirement benefits. Failure to adequately exchange information related to bargaining clearly violates Article 7 of the GDF SUEZ GFA, &ldquo;Respect for Trade Union Rights,&rdquo; which references transparency in labour-management forums. The agreement also refers to the OECD Guidelines and the ILO Tripartite Principles, both of which have clear language regarding exchange of information for &ldquo;meaningful negotiations&rdquo; in social partnerships. 
 
The GFA, signed in November 2010, covers all of the group&rsquo;s businesses, even ones in which the company holds a minority stake. In a letter last month to GDF SUEZ CEO G&eacute;rard Mestralett, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and PSI General Secretary Peter Waldorff said, &ldquo;The ICEM and PSI are angry and disappointed with the callousness, indifference, and negative conduct of United Water management in relation to the Global Framework Agreement and abidance to GDF SUEZ&rsquo;s core social principles.&rdquo;
<img alt="" src="" width="260" height="173" />
UWUA President Michael Langford&nbsp; 

The alleged environmental infractions also saw the GUFs take issue with United Water. In December 2010, the US government issued a criminal indictment charging that United Water intentionally manipulated E.coli bacteria monitoring tests at a wastewater treatment plant outside of Chicago. The indictment alleges that United Water engaged in a scheme in which it increased chlorine levels when government-mandated E.coli inspections took place, and then lowered input levels after as a costs-savings measure. The allegations, if proven true, stand as an obvious menace to public health. United Water has pleaded not guilty to the charges. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4208-US-Affiliate-UWUA-Challenges-GDF-SUEZ-Inside-Global-Agreement">ICEM report</a> on that here.) 
 
The UWUA symbolically filed the OECD petition yesterday, along with the American NGO Food and Water Watch, at the French embassy in Washington, DC, as well as to the US government&rsquo;s National Contact Point. UWUA Local 1-2 in New York City also distributed informational leaflets on United Water&rsquo;s detrimental conduct outside the French mission to the UN. Under the OECD complaint process, both the US and French governments are obligated to forward the submission to the French parent company and to the US subsidiary for a formal reply. 
 
UWUA President Michael Langford said, &ldquo;Utility workers have been astonished at the bad faith conduct of United Water in labour negotiations in the US.&rdquo;

US Utility Workers File OECD Complaint Against Suez Environnement

Archive