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The 20-million-member ICEM is calling on its 425 global affiliates to come to the assistance of Colombian oil workers, members of Uni&ograve;n Sindical Obrera (USO), who have been on strike now for eight days against the country's national oil company, Ecopetrol. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs is calling on trade unions across the globe to write to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to protest not only government actions that caused the strike, but the Uribe Administration's response to the strike. A day after the strike began on 22 April, the government declared the walkout illegal on the ill-conceived notion that petroleum refining is an &quot;essential service&quot; of a nation. 
 
&quot;Declaring the strike by members of USO illegal and citing petroleum refining as an essential service to Colombia contradicts ILO jurisprudence on what constitutes a nation's essential services,&quot; wrote ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs to President Uribe. &quot;Case after case has omitted oil refining from that category.&quot; 
 
Higgs also said in the letter the act of making the strike illegal, &quot;considering Colombia's volatile political circumstances&quot; has brought &quot;harsh repercussions&quot; to the striking oil workers. 
 
The strike, affecting 5,500 workers, is primarily over the government's decision to restructure Ecopetrol, which likely will mean a reduction in workers' benefits. USO is also seeking a new collective wage agreement through the strike. 
 
Since declaring the strike illegal, the Colombian government has placed legal sanctions on the officers of USO, arrested 17 strike leaders from different petrol plants and has threatened military force to bust the strike. Police have announced that anti-terrorism measures will be taken against striking workers, and the USO reports a great many death threats have been made against workers and USO leaders alike. 
 
The restructuring, announced in June 2003, has seen the government sign new and extended contracts over exploration and production of oil fields with private sector operators, most of which are foreign based. USO contends that such rewritten contracts with relaxed terms will plunder Colombia's natural resources and eventually will lead to the privatization of Ecopetrol. 
 
&quot;We know that the national economy, the workers, and Colombian people in general will be seriously affected,&quot; said USO Secretary General Juan Ramon Rios in a public statement. 
 
USO calls the Ecopetrol dispute the most important strike in Colombia in over 20 years and is asking oil and petrochemical unions across the world to monitor exports of refined products to Colombia in the event the country's reserves dwindle. The union is also asking the global trade union movement to protest directly to Colombian embassies in their home countries. 
 
The ICEM issued a circular today to its affiliates asking them to write letters of protest to: Alvaro Uribe Velez, Presidente de la Rep&uacute;blica de Colombia, Casa de Narino, Bogota DC (obserdh@presidencia.gov.co).

ICEM Condemns Colombian Government over Oil Strike

The Global Employee Forum of Norwegian pulp and paper producer Norske Skog has issued a strong statement in support of ICEM affiliate Fellesforbundet. The union is seeking to keep open a 380-worker book and newsprint mill in Skien, Norway, called Norske Skog Union. But the company is intent on closing in order to reduce capacity even though buyers have lined up to acquire the mill. The firm&rsquo;s Global Employee Forum has charged management that it has not &ldquo;prioritized and not taken advantage of the book market&rsquo;s shortage of book paper.&rdquo; Norske Skog has said &ldquo;no to inquiries from customers in this market&rdquo; and the employees&rsquo; forum calls on the company to exhibit the necessary social responsibility to &ldquo;see that production at Norske Skog Union is maintained, at least with new owners.&rdquo;

Norske Skog Workers Protest Closure of Norwegian Paper Mill

A broad workers&rsquo; movement in Nepal backed by global trade union confederations will convene next weekend, 10-12 September, in Katmandu. The conference will call for full restoration of human and trade union rights in the Himalayan kingdom and will issue a road map to that end. Some 1,500 trade union leaders from both inside and outside Nepal will attend. National trade union center GEFONT, one of four Nepalese organisations organising the event, said the conference &ldquo;will declare common mechanism among all workers to fight and safeguard workers&rsquo; rights,&rdquo; adding the conference will &ldquo;train grassroots representatives at once on necessity of democracy for trade unions.&rdquo; Even though a state of emergency issued by the monarchy was lifted last spring, trade union rights continue to be suspended and human rights violations continue to occur.

Labour, Human Rights Conference in Nepal

The ICEM's Asia-Pacific Union Network of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. met in Manila, Philippines, 8-9 August, and attention focused on the American rubber company's fierce resistance to unionisation drives of contract workers in Thailand and Malaysia. Goodyear plant union leaders also discussed the company's retreat from ownership of natural rubber plantations at a time when natural rubber demand coupled with shortages is increasing. Some 21 leaders from Japan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand took part.

Goodyear AP Meeting Studies Contract Labour Issue

Over the course of the summer, an asbestos scandal hit Japan and has been getting a lot of press attention ever since. According to reports, around 3,000 people die every year from asbestos cancer in Japan and it is feared that these numbers may rise considerably in the coming years. When in 1987, lobbyists began to call for a ban of crocidolite, used, amongst other purposes, in Japanese schools, the government failed to take the necessary action. Similarly in the 1990s, when a move to ban asbestos was blocked after &quot;relentless opposition from within the asbestos industry.&quot;

Asbestos Issue Surfaces in Japan

Following rebel harassment, Unilever Nepal decided on August 17 to close its factory in Basamadi in the Makwanpur district, west of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu. The decision to suspend operations indefinitely was taken after threats by the Maoist insurgents in Nepal to &ldquo;close the factory by force.&rdquo; The events come only one month after another multinational, Colgate-Palmolive, was forced to close its toothpaste factory in the same district. Unilever Nepal is one of the country&rsquo;s largest exporters and has been a target for rebel threats before. Bombs already exploded at the factory on several occasions in previous years. The Nepal Independent Chemical and Iron Employees' Union, an ICEM affiliate, made an appeal to the National Human Rights Commission, as well as to other rights organisations that have been known to mediate with the rebels, asking to demand the guerrillas to withdraw their threat.

Unilever&#039;s Colgate-Palmolive Factory in Nepal Closed

ICEM oil union affiliates in Nigeria will again oppose any domestic price increase in the cost of petrol. State-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) and the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) said earlier this month it would try to enforce price increases even over the objections of stakeholders involved in the public entities, including trade unions PENGASSAN and NUPENG.PENGASSAN said it would mount strong opposition until measures are in place to cushion effects of high fuel prices across all of Nigerian society. NUPENG has called on all Nigerian workers in the country to oppose the hike unless it comes with commensurate increases in social benefit packages for all workers in both the private and public sectors. NNPC and PPPRA assert that increases are necessary due to rising prices of imported refined products. But the unions contend Nigeria's only solution to high global prices of petroleum are major upgrades to local refining and capacity.

Nigerian Unions Will Agian resist Petrol Price Hikes

An ongoing lockout by an investment house against chemical workers of US affiliate International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB) has reinforced the ruthlessness capital wreaks on US unions when a manufacturing enterprise changes hands. 
In Meredosia, Illinois, chemicals company Celanese owned by equity trader Blackstone Group locked out workers 6 June, four months after buying the emulsions, adhesives and polymers plant. 
<img height="147" src="" width="125" alt="" />
The crime of the 148 workers: refusal to accept steep concessions to their health care plan, opposing the company's plans to lose 41 jobs to contract labour and dissatisfaction with a three-year wage freeze. When workers again voted down the proposed cuts late in June, Celanese responded by harshly proposing 20-40% pay cuts. The ICEM has issued a Circular to all affiliates, and trade unions across the world are encouraged to respond to IBB Local Branch 484.

Harsh Lockout of Boilermakers Union in US

German affiliate IGBCE and paper manufacturers in Baden-Wuerttemberg reached a satisfactory one-year labour agreement 27 July for 12,000 paperworkers in the paper-rich area. Terms of the agreement, reached through the conciliation process, will now likely be extended to 45,000 paperworkers throughout western Germany. It calls for a &euro;410 wage increase for all regular workers, and a &euro;100 training stipend for vocational workers inside Germany&rsquo;s paper sector. On 1 March 2006, workers will receive a 2.2% wage increase. IGBCE Governing Board Member Werner Bischoff characterized the negotiations as very difficult and hard, and credited the success of talks to constant pressure on management by workers at mills and converters in Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Contract Reached for Paper Sector in Germany

<img height="40" src="" width="100" alt="" />
Protests by long-term electrical workers in Sierra Leone who are classified as casual workers erupted late in July in the country&rsquo;s capital. Members of the Electricity Employees Union protested at the headquarters of the National Power Authority because workers employed as long as 12 years are considered &ldquo;casual&rdquo; and denied entitlements and benefits. 
The union had taken the matter to the Ministry of Labour, but utility managers failed to cooperate with an investigation. The union argues that junior workers can only be considered casual workers for the initial three months of employment.

Sierra Leone Electrical Workers Protest Casual Status

Archive

ICEM Condemns Colombian Government over Oil Strike

Norske Skog Workers Protest Closure of Norwegian Paper Mill

Labour, Human Rights Conference in Nepal

Goodyear AP Meeting Studies Contract Labour Issue

Asbestos Issue Surfaces in Japan

Unilever's Colgate-Palmolive Factory in Nepal Closed

Nigerian Unions Will Agian resist Petrol Price Hikes

Harsh Lockout of Boilermakers Union in US

Contract Reached for Paper Sector in Germany

Sierra Leone Electrical Workers Protest Casual Status

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