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Employment law changes in New Zealand&nbsp;took effect 1 April have given all employers the right to dismiss employees within a first 90-day &ldquo;trial&rdquo; period, with no rights to&nbsp;grievance procedure. This rule previously applied for small businesses of fewer than 20 employees.
Now it applies in all workplaces, no matter the side of the workforce.&nbsp; 
 
The regressive changes also include restrictions on trade union access to a worksite, relaxation of&nbsp;fairness tests on dismissals, the ability&nbsp;of employers to bypass the union in collective negotiations, the possibility to exchange holiday days for money, the&nbsp;right to shift public holidays without payment, and the right for employers to demand a medical certificate for one day&rsquo;s sick leave. 
 
There is nothing fair in the workplace law changes, according to ICEM-affiliated Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU). 
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EPMU National Secretary, Andrew Little
Click here to sign the <a href="http://www.epmu.org.nz/petition-2/">EPMU&rsquo;s petition</a>. 
 
&quot;We are approaching employers with either collective bargaining claims to stop things like the 90 day no rights law, or the new rules on medical certificates being used by employers, or seeking a pledge that they will not reduce themselves to the low level that the law represents,&quot; said EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little. Some employers have already agreed not to use the bad new law, including Telecom, which employs 7,000 employees in New Zealand.

New Zealand Labour Law Changes Damage Worker Rights

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Turnout by EDF and GDF SUEZ workers for a day-long strike 7 April called by five French unions was enough to cut power output by over 15,000 megawatts across the country, according to one of the unions. Upwards of 80% of workers of the two former French government companies protested last Thursday, although the utilities said only half of total staff participated. 
 
The electric and gas workers were striking over a plan by the companies to reduce the preferential rates that workers get on electric and gas bills. French unions CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, and CFTC endorsed the industrial action as a way&nbsp;to express workers&rsquo; displeasure with the proposed take-aways. 
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French workers have had the discounted rate plan since 1946, when the companies where chartered and nationalised following World War II. The partial rate discounts&nbsp;amount now&nbsp;to between &euro;1,000 and &euro;1,500 annually and workers consider the discounts a complement to their now stagnant wages. 
 
The last time management of the then state-owned companies tried to eliminate the discounts, in 1983, strike participation by 96% of workers dissuaded the companies from following through. The unions met last Friday, 8 April, to assess what next step to take if the current plan to reduce discounts continues. 
 
Last Thursday&rsquo;s power outages saw the equivalent of ten nuclear plants out of France&rsquo;s 58 total plants that&nbsp;stopped generating electricity. Gas and supply deliveries were also halted across the country, as manifestations occurred in scores of French towns and regions, including a massive one attended by thousands of EDF and GDF SUEZ staff at la D&eacute;fense, Paris&rsquo;s corporate capital and site of headquarters of the two companies.

French Power Cut as EDF, GDF SUEZ Staff Manifest on 7 April

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A two-week strike against Finnish papermaker UPM by 1,000 members of ICEM affiliate Ammattilitto Pro is continuing. Production is seriously crimped at six pulp and paper mills of Finland&rsquo;s largest pulp and paper firm, with work stoppages at 20 other facilities including UPM&rsquo;s administrative centre in Tempere and its export facility at the Kotka port. 
 
The strike began 6 April and will run until 20 April. Ammattiliitto Pro, representing 4,000 white-collar salaried, technical, and clerical workers across the Finnish pulp and paper sector, targeted UPM because of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation&rsquo;s (FFIF) unwillingness to offer a national salary structure during a March reopening of a two-year labour agreement. 

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UPM's Rauma, Finland, Mill
The ICEM issued a <a href="/en/19-Pulp-Paper/4355-Action-Needed-Votre-intervention-est-souhaitée-Se-requiere-acción-urgente">Solidarity Alert</a> to global trade unions of the sector on 6 April, and union activists are encouraged here to heed that call by sending messages of support to Ammattiliitto Pro.
 
The industrial action came after a government conciliator failed to put forward a compromise on 4 April. Despite promises in early rounds of talks that a national pay scheme would be submitted and structured around work skills and work requirements in a sector dramatically downsized, the FFIF put forward nothing in federal level talks. 
 
Instead, it deferred all bargaining over pay to the individual mills, or within local workplaces. Pro is seeking some level of equity for lower-paid staff, many of whom are women and deserve some semblance of pay equity. 
 
&ldquo;We want a system that recognises the increased work and greater responsibility taken on by our members,&rdquo; said Pro&rsquo;s chief negotiator for the Pulp and Paper Sector, Jukka H&auml;m&auml;l&auml;inen. Some 1,000 clerical and salaried staff in Finland&rsquo;s pulp and paper industry have been furloughed over the past few years because of an economic downturn that only now is recovering. 
 
On 17 March, the union sent notice of termination of the agreement, effective 1 April. It issued its intent to strike on 23 March and following the complete failure of mandatory government intervention on 1 April and again on 4 April, the strike began 6 April.

Ammattiliitto Pro Strike in Finland Against Paper Firm UPM Continues

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Workers in the chemicals sector scored the highest 2011 pay gains yet in all German industrial and service sectors, thanks to mobilisation rallies, worker involvement, and the bargaining tenacity of ICEM affiliate IGBCE. On the final day (31 March) of the second round of federal talks for 550,000 workers of 1,900 companies in Bad Honnef, a 14-month pay increase of 4.1% was won. 
 
The increase will become effective at different times in different regions: retroactive to 1 March for chemical workers in North Rhine, Rheinland-Pfalz, and Hessen R&uuml;ckwirkend; on 1 April in Westfalen, Bayern, Baden-W&uuml;rttemberg, Niedersachsen/Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein/Hamburg, and Berlin; and 1 May in Saarland and the North-east. 
 
The agreement also gives flexibility for employers still recovering from the economic crisis to effectuate the wage increase in May, while most of the major chemical companies that are on strong standing will have&nbsp;already given the increase. 
 
Of particular note, the IGBCE and the chemical employers&rsquo; association, BAVC, agreed to add small- and medium-sized businesses to the unique &ldquo;Start in den Beruf&rdquo; programme, a &ldquo;start your active job&rdquo; project that places young people into chemical enterprises with opportunities for career enhancement and advancement. 
<img height="140" width="165" src="" alt="" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="132" width="175" src="" alt="" /> 
 
Michael Vassiliadis&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Peter Hausmann
These employers will now receive subsides from an industry-funded bank that will offset apprenticeship costs for companies. The highly-successful programme developed in social talks in the mid-2000s between IGBCE and BAVC has brought close to 3,000 young persons into relevant positions in Germany&rsquo;s keystone chemicals industry. 
 
The 2011-12 accord also grants current apprentices a &euro;35-per-month increase. 
 
&ldquo;Last year, we signed an agreement that was a bridge between crisis and recovery,&rdquo; said IGBCE President Michael Vassiliadis. &ldquo;Now, as we predicted, we signed a growth agreement. This shows the social partnership in chemicals remains on solid footing in solving some very difficult problems.&rdquo; 
 
IGBCE Head of Collective Bargaining Peter Hausmann added: &ldquo;We fought hard for this achievement. We mobilised and without the outstanding support from workers in the various enterprises, we would not have come to this result.&rdquo; 
 
An ICEM report on <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4340-IGBCE-Mobilises-for-Second-Federal-Round-of-German-Chemical-Talks ">IGBCE&rsquo;s two months of mobilisations</a> leading up the final Bad Honnef settlement can be found here.

IGBCE Carves 4.1% 2011 Increase for 550,000 German Chemical Workers

Meeting in Toronto on 19 June, 270 national trade union leaders from 50 countries put forward a stern Declaration to the G8 and G20 that a radically changed global social order must occur, one prioritizing security of employment and preservation of the environment. The Declaration, pointed at the G8 and G20 summits this week in Toronto, came from a &ldquo;Triple Crisis of Sustainability&rdquo; forum, a meeting of union leaders representing 55 million workers from industrial and manufacturing sectors. 

The Declaration was a joint undertaking of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM), the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), and the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF). It was done with local cooperation by five trade unions representing industrial and other workers in Canada: Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), the Power Workers Union (PWU), the United Steelworkers (USW), and the International Association of Machinists (IAM).
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&nbsp; 
Gianni Alioti, Federazione Lavoratori Metalmeccanici, FLM, Italy
At the core of the Declaration is a demand that finance and political ministers put in place a stringent global financial governance system, introduce an international financial transaction tax, and reach an ambitious and binding agreement on greenhouse gas emissions at Cop16 in Mexico later this year. 

The 10-point Declaration also calls for guarantees that fundamental workers&rsquo; and trade union rights be respected in trade and investment deals; that sustainable development be made a criteria in trade and investment agreements; and that thorough assessment and assurance of social, economic, and environment well-being is contained in trade agreements. The full Declaration can be found <a href="-Toronto-Canada-19-June-2010">here</a>.
&ldquo;Industrial workers have a central role to play in building a future that lifts people out of poverty while protecting the environment,&rdquo; states the Declaration. &ldquo;Through industrial and political action, our three global federations demand that the world&rsquo;s leaders take decisive actions to solve the economic, social, and environmental crises.&rdquo; 

Regarding the timing of the Declaration, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said, &ldquo;The global economy is still on life-support and continued stimulus is needed. Re-regulating markets, a move to full employment, and a set of social stabilizers to reduce a rapid slide into poverty by hundreds of millions of people is essential.&rdquo;
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IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina&nbsp;
Added IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina: &ldquo;Industry is the locomotive of national economies, as a provider of good quality jobs with decent wages and working hours, and the right to join a union. We need to limit precarious work by legislation and collective agreements, and develop industrial policies for sustainable development both in industrialised and developing countries.&quot; 
 
Geneva-based ICEM has 467 trade union affiliates in 132 countries, and represents 20 million workers. The IMF, also based in Geneva, represents the collective interests of 25 million metalworkers from more than 200 unions in 100 countries. The Brussels-based ITGLWF covers 217 trade unions in 110 countries. 

For more, contact: Dick Blin, ICEM Information Officer, <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +1 416 361 1000 Ext. 3344, +41 79 734 8994 (mobile); or Alex Ivanou, IMF Communications, <a href="mailto:aivanou@imfmetal.org">aivanou@imfmetal.org</a>, +41 22 308 5033.

Global Union Federations Demand New Priorities from G8, G20 Summits

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In this issue of the HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report on ICEM&rsquo;s Southern African Women&rsquo;s Workshop, which took place at the Midrand Conference Centre near Johnnesburg, South Africa, and we inform about the Global Fund&rsquo;s call for proposals, and we deal with funding gaps, which may soon lead to loss of lives. 
 
The ICEM Calls on its Affiliates to Contribute to this e-bulletin 
 
ICEM affiliates are engaged in a wide range of HIV/AIDS activities. To spread the information on new agreements, awareness, and prevention campaigns, and educational activities, affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org</a>. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome. 
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ICEM Southern African HIV/AIDS Women&rsquo;s Workshop 
 
Participants at the Women&rsquo;s Workshop were proudly wearing their scarves with the slogan, &ldquo;Safe Sex Demands Equal Rights.&rdquo; This was the theme of the workshop, which was held in Johannesburg from 18-20 May with 26 participants from Botswana, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. 
 
The decision to hold a women-only workshop was based on the need to identify specific challenges facing women, especially the empowerment of their sexual relations through the use of female condoms (femidoms). An HIV-positive woman from the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) of South Africa stressed the importance of female condoms and demonstrated their use. Her example also stood out as she gave birth to an HIV-negative baby following the necessary treatment. 

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The workshop also discussed increasing access for women to prevention, treatment, and care and how to address violence arising from HIV and AIDS status. According to a facilitator from the Twaranang Legal Advocacy Centre, only 5% of perpetrators are brought to book. Women are discouraged by untrained police officers handling violence cases and by lengthy legal procedures. 
 
Intensive role play and group work completed the workshop programme. Participants called for a campaign to promote female condoms. They recommended that unions take a stand against violence; that the quality of counselling and testing be improved; and that police be trained to deal adequately with cases of violence. 
 
Another first of the workshop was that it was an almost paperless meeting. Participants were encouraged to save all workshop documents and presentations on memory sticks given to them as part of the workshop materials. 

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Global Fund Launches New Funding Round 
 
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria launched its tenth call for proposals on 20 May. The deadline for submissions of proposals was fixed as 20 August. Thus, applicants will have three months to prepare their proposals, one month less than in recent rounds. 
 
There is considerable uncertainty whether sufficient funds will be available to pay for all of the Round 10 proposals that are recommended for funding by the Technical Review Panel (TRP). The Global Fund says that, currently, based on confirmed pledges, no money is available for Round 10. However, the Global Fund is in the middle of &quot;replenishment,&quot; with donors due to specify in October how much they expect to give to the Fund over the next three years. Thus, the amount of money available for Round 10 will certainly increase by the time the Global Fund Board approves Round 10 proposals at its meeting in December 2010. 
 
All proposals submitted by the closing date will be reviewed by the Global Fund Secretariat to ensure that they meet the Fund's eligibility criteria. Eligible proposals will then be forwarded to the TRP for consideration. The TRP will make recommendations to the Global Fund Board, which will make its decisions at its meeting scheduled for 13-15 December 2010. (In the past, all proposals recommended by the TRP for approval have indeed been approved by the Board, though sometimes they have been waitlisted pending funding availability.) 
 
The Round 10 proposal form and various support documents are available in six languages at <a href="http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/applynow">www.theglobalfund.org/en/applynow</a>. 
 
(Source: Global Fund press release; and Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 124 of 21 May. GFO is a free service of Aidspan (<a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>); to receive GFO send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>. 
 
The Global Fund Observer has also published a Guide to Round 10 applications which is available in English, French, Spanish, and Russian on the above website. 

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Malawi Moves to Adopt WHO Guidelines 
 
Developing countries like Malawi are calculating the cost of adhering to new World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines that recommend starting HIV-positive people on antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) sooner. 
 
Malawi is one of three African countries that have conducted WHO-supported feasibility studies to assess what adopting the new guidelines would mean, and has announced plans to roll out the new WHO guidelines by mid-2011. According to the feasibility study, the number of people on treatment would rise by about 50%, which could double the cost of the National ARV Programme in terms of additional drugs, personnel, and equipment, and would probably also mean waiting lists at many clinics. Malawi has a HIV prevalence rate of about 12%. 
 
Implementing the WHO guidelines would mean major changes to national treatment protocols: HIV-positive people would start taking ARVs at a much higher CD4 count of 350 (a measure of the viral load to ascertain when HIV-positive people should begin treatment). Like other countries in the region, it has begun treating HIV-positive pregnant women at the WHO-recommended CD4 count of 350, but the standard CD4 count threshold for initiating ARV treatment remains 250. 
 
Finance is among the major hurdles to adopting the guidelines, as well as infrastructure, supply-chain management, and health worker shortages. 
 
(Sources: IRIN PlusNews, Johannesburg, 27 May) 

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Eliminate Bottlenecks to End Mother-to-Child-Transmission 
 
Making services for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) available without addressing the factors that keep mothers from accessing these services was an exercise in futility, experts told a press briefing in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. 
 
&quot;There are barriers that stop mothers from accessing prevention of mother-to-child transmission and treatment services, some of which include inadequate involvement of men and communities, and lack of information,&quot; said Chewe Luo, senior advisor on HIV/AIDS to the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF. 
 
Women might not be able to afford medical care or transport to a clinic; cultural taboos might discourage them from giving birth in medical facilities. &quot;We have to expand the scope of what we do to ensure that the burden of prevention does not fall on women's shoulders alone,&quot; Luo said. 
 
Virtual elimination of mother-to-child transmission in Africa - where 20 countries share over 85% of the global burden of mother-to-child HIV transmission - would be possible but only if HIV counselling and testing services were expanded so that all mothers had access to effective antiretroviral (ARV) prophylaxis and treatment. 
 
In 2008, globally, 430,000 children became infected with HIV, 90% of whom lived in sub-Saharan Africa. In the absence of access to ARV treatment, most of them would die within one year of birth, according to UNAIDS. Fareed Abdullah, unit director for Africa at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, promised that &quot;The Global Fund will refocus funding to ensure that priority is given to PMTCT programmes in the recipient countries, and more so in the 20 countries that share the 85% of the global burden of mother to child transmission of HIV.&quot; 
 
(Sources: IRIN PlusNews, Nairobi, 28 May) 

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Lost Funding Means Lost Lives 
 
As donors retreat from funding HIV and AIDS programmes, years of progress in HIV treatment are under threat and the lives of HIV-positive people are increasingly on the line, according to a new report by the international medical charity, M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF). Improved access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment has saved lives, reduced the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) and new HIV infections, and strengthened health systems in many countries hard hit by HIV. But as funding diminishes, these gains are now in jeopardy, says the report, &ldquo;No Time to Quit: HIV/AIDS Treatment Gap Widening in Africa.&rdquo; 
 
Funding shortages in eight African countries have already led to drug stock-outs, treatment rationing, and the inability of most of the countries to adopt improved ARV regimens advocated by the World Health Organization (WHO), the report noted. &quot;About 75% of HIV funding in developing countries is international &ndash; you can't replace that in the short term,&quot; said Mit Philips, a health policy analyst at MSF and one of the report's authors. 
 
The recent decision by the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to flat-line it&rsquo;s funding at 2009 levels and decrease annual budget allocations in coming years, has already led PEPFAR-supported clinics in South Africa to begin turning away patients. 
 
UNITAID, the international drug purchasing facility, is to phase out drug funding, leaving Zimbabwe, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Malawi without funding for costly second-line ARV drugs by 2012. 
 
Dr Eric Goemaere, MSF Medical Coordinator in South Africa, called donor backtracking a &quot;moral betrayal. Years ago, countries in the southern Africa region were unsure that they could afford treatment, but they were told by the international community 'Set ambitious targets, we will follow with the money',&rdquo; he said. &quot;If this funding trend is confirmed, I would call it a moral betrayal for patients, who were told to be courageous and face testing because we would provide treatment; for the health staff, who managed to enroll more than four million people on treatment, and who are suddenly told not to enroll patients.&quot; 
 
The report predicted that if the downward trend in funding continued, ARVs would become increasingly inaccessible, which would lead to increased rates of mortality and hospitalisation among those living with HIV, and place a strain on already weak health systems. The report also warned that ARV patients may adopt risky strategies for coping with drug supply shortages, such as sharing pills, thereby increasing the likelihood of widespread drug resistance. 
 
(Source: IRIN PlusNews, Johannesburg, 27 May) 
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HIV/AIDS Project in India Scores Again 
 
The ICEM HIV/AIDS project in India, sponsored by the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, has continued well into 2010 although funding ceased at the end of 2009. 
 
In the first five months of 2010, 24 courses and awareness meetings were held, under the auspices of the Indian National Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation (INMF) and coordinated by its General Secretary, BK Das. These activities did not only reach mineworkers but also school teachers and students in company schools, as well as paramedical staff in company clinics. 
 
The extension of the project was possible because companies had increasingly taken over some of the costs resulting in budgetary savings which could be deployed for organising additional activities. 

<img alt="" src="" width="40" height="40" />
Headaches for HIV-positive Travellers 
 
China recently became the latest country to lift travel restrictions on people living with HIV, following the footsteps of the US (see <a href="/en/72-HIV-AIDS/3492-ICEM-HIV-AIDS-e-bulletin-No.-50-November-2009">e-bulletin No. 50</a> of November 2009, and <a href="/en/72-HIV-AIDS/3582-ICEM-HIV-AIDS-e-bulletin-No.-52-January-2010">No. 52</a> of January 2010). 
 
&ldquo;Every individual should have equal access to freedom of movement regardless of his or her HIV status,&rdquo; UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidib&eacute; commented on China&rsquo;s decision. 
 
According to UNAIDS, 51 countries and territories still impose restrictions on the entry, stay and residence of HIV-positive people. Among those countries requiring an HIV test, usually for a stay longer than 30 days, are: the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Singapore, Egypt, and Iraq. 
 
The Inter-Parliamentary Union, at its 122nd Assembly, called for an elimination of all restrictions. It called on parliamentarians to play a leading role in removing them and also encouraged parliamentarians to support legislation and law enforcement to protect people living with HIV from discrimination. 
 
(Source: IRIN PlusNews, Nairobi, 6 May) 

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News from Global Unions 
 
The ICEM project in India is included in a documentation of good practices which was published by the ILO India Project, which is supported by the US Department of Labor. The publication is available on the website <a href="http://www.ilo.org/hivaidsindia">www.ilo.org/hivaidsindia</a>. 
 
The International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF &ndash; <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a>) reports in its latest HIV/AIDS update No. 86 of 15 May on counselling and testing camps organised at Ethiopian international and domestic airports. The ITF also recently published the 4th issue of Agenda, an annual publication on HIV/AIDS and transport workers. 
<img alt="" src="" width="40" height="40" />
This ICEM HIV-AIDS Newsletter &ndash; How to Subscribe 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an email to <a href="mailto:press@icem.org">press@icem.org</a>. Please put &ldquo;subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin&rdquo; in the subject line.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 57, June 2010

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Started in 2009 with the support of the Dutch national labour centre FNV, ICEM&rsquo;s Organising and Social Dialogue Project continued its seminars in Turkey last month. Regional seminars involving local union officials and militants in April were held in Thrace and Gebze, both areas considered to be emerging industrial zones that surround Istanbul. 
 
There are a number of multinational companies within ICEM sectors in both cities, some of which are organised by ICEM-affiliated trade unions. There are also a number of organsing efforts by the unions. 
 
With the overall objective to build Turkish trade union ability to recruit new members, as well as to discuss the establishment of a base to create a functioning industrial relations system, prioritizing human and trade union rights, and to promote healthy social dialogue, the seminar in Thrace was attended by 64 local trade union leaders, shop stewards, and militants from ICEM-affiliated unions, while those attending in Gebze numbered 68. 

<img alt="" src="" width="321" height="157" />
Participants at the Thrace, Turkey, workshop 
The Thrace seminar welcomed several international trade union leaders from the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Spain. Celil &Ccedil;oban and Mail &Uuml;rker of FNV Bondgenoten in the Netherlands, Sylvain Lefebvre and Jacques Caltot of French FCE-CFDT, Michael Wolters of IGBCE of Germany, and Isidor Boix of Spain&rsquo;s FITEQA-CC.OO exchanged the experiences and trade union knowledge from their countries. 
 
ICEM Health, Safety, Sustainability Officer Brian Kohler also shared his trade union experiences from Canada. During the seminar, a solidarity visit was made by the French delegation to the plant of Zentiva, a part of the multinational Sanofi-Aventis. The Zentiva plant is organised by ICEM Turkish affiliate Petrol-İş. At the time of the visit, there was a collective bargaining conflict. The French delegation met with company managers as well as workers, and it was decided to put the dispute on to the agenda of the European Works Council through the help of FCE-CFDT. 
 
The seminar in Gebze in May hosted international trade union leaders from the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. Celil &Ccedil;oban and Mail &Uuml;rker of FNV Bondgenoten and Michael Wolters of IGBCE again participated, as did Mats Svensson from Sweden&rsquo;s IF Metall and Jorgen Juul Rasmussen of Dansk-El F&ouml;rbund of Denmark. 

<img alt="" src="" width="320" height="121" />
Participants at the Gebze, Turkey, workshop 
ICEM Central and Eastern European Coordinator Anatoly Surin shared his trade union experiences from Russia, as well. As a prompt practical result of the seminar, IGBCE&rsquo;s Wolters visited the plants of two German-based multinationals, Bayer and BASF, where he met with union officials and company managers with a view to enhancing social dialogue at local levels. It was decided to develop this particular agenda in the upcoming period. 
 
Both seminars got presentations from Turkish trade union expert &Uuml;zeyir Ataman, Director of Education and Collective Bargaining of Lastik-İş, on union history and the current labour relations situation in Turkey. Later, the seminar focused on Power and Weak Points, Challenges and Opportunities, and Concrete Organising Targets inside Turkey, with contributions and inputs by participants from different towns around both Thrace and Gebze. 
 
&ldquo;Both seminars in Thrace and Gebze created a good environment for international solidarity after many militants did get together with their comrades from different countries,&rdquo; said ICEM Rubber and Chemicals Industries Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan, coordinator of the two-year project. &Ouml;zkan also made a presentation on globalisation and labour relations. 
 
The project will continue with similar seminars in the second half of 2010. One such session will occur in September in the city of Bursa, said to be the &ldquo;Detroit&rdquo; of Turkey for its auto industry, as well as being known as the capital of the textile and garment industry. The other will be devoted to youth organising in the Eagean region. That will occur in October. The project will close with a conference at the end of October in Ankara.

ICEM’s Turkish FNV Mondiaal Project Continues in Thrace, Gebze

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ICEM has traditionally been very active in Central Asia and the Caucasus region since the sectors it has membership in are major economic drivers in these countries. Within this framework, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Rubber and Chemicals Industries Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan visited Armenia and Georgia in early May. 
 
In Armenia, Warda and &Ouml;zkan met Eduard Tumasyan, President of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Armenia and Levon Khachatryan, Executive Secretary and Head of the Education-Research Centre of the confederation. Warda stressed the importance of boosting the role of trade unions in shaping civil society, and said the Armenia trilateral agreement that was signed by the government, Trade Union Confederation and Employers&rsquo; Association on 27 April 2009, establishing extra guarantees regulating labour relations and requiring parties to engage in joint actions was a major step in this direction. 
 
Thanking the ICEM for the visit, Tumasyan stated the need to introduce new tools for developing labour relations in order to combat high unemployment through social partnering. 
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In Armenia, Levon Khachatryan; the Deputy Chair of the Textile and Light Industry Workers&rsquo; Union; Hrach Tadevosyan; the ICEM&rsquo;s Manfred Warda; Karine Aloyan; Anastas Pahlevanyan; and ICEM&rsquo;s Kemal &Ouml;zkan
A recent report issued by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) on core labour standards in Armenia stated that the right to strike is limited, and most work rights for public-sector workers is banned. The report also says collective bargaining and tripartite agreements at the national level have been virtually non-existent until 2009. 
 
The ITUC adds that most workers are unable to exercise the right to unionise and bargain collectively due to flexibilisation in the labour code and the government&rsquo;s tolerance of a high level of informal employment relationships. 
 
The ICEM delegation also met with Anastas Pahlevanyan, President of the Mining and Metallurgical Workers&rsquo; Union, ICEM&rsquo;s lone affiliate in Armenia, Karine Aloyan, President of Energy Workers&rsquo; Union, and Hrach Tadevosyan, President of the Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union in a meeting arranged by the confederation. Mining is one of the important economic forces in Armenia, and a major portion of the state budget is financed by taxes yielded from mining. 
 
But the negative effects from the global economic crisis have been felt in the mines, where there are several multinational companies that have investments. In the city of Kapan, for example, Deno Gold Mining Co. was shut down for three months during the crisis, while more than 1,000 employees of Armenian Copper Program Co., located in Alaverdi, were also laid off. 
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This also holds true for the chemicals sector, where the biggest company, Nairit employing some 3,000 workers that produce rubber, laid off more than half its staff for over four months. In the energy industry, nuclear power takes an important position in generation and the unions raise major concerns on health and safety. 
 
Following a presentation by Warda, the parties decided to continue cooperation in the near future with training activities. 
 
The ICEM delegation then passed to neighbouring Georgia, where a first meeting was held with Irakli Petriashvili and Gocha Aleksandria, President and Vice President, respectively, of the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC). Petriahvili explained GTUC efforts to reform the trade union movement in Georgia, but admitted a number of challenges. 
 
He said changing the mentality of government, workers, and society as a whole is difficult, mainly because Georgia is considered a &ldquo;champion&rdquo; in adopting and practicing the prescriptions of global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. 
 
This puts the trade union movement in a more precarious position, and carrying out union activities is next to impossible. The legal landscape tends to restrict union organising and collective bargaining. &ldquo;The existing labour law, in our view, is a declaration of rights of employers,&rdquo; stated Gocha Aleksandria. Warda conveyed the full support of the ICEM toward the struggle of trade unions in Georgia. 
 
According to last year&rsquo;s ITUC report, Georgia&rsquo;s Labour Code of 2006 severely reduced workers&rsquo; basic trade union rights through limitations on freedom of association and the right to organise, namely the threshold for establishing a trade union, which is excessively high. 
 
There are severe restrictions on the right to strike. Solidarity strikes are prohibited and in practice, trade unionists get threats and intimidations and face dismissals without explanations. The labour code and government authorities provide insufficient protection against anti-union discrimination, and the law grants a de facto green light to union busting and a marginalisation of collective bargaining. 
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ICEM's Manfred Warda, at Georgian Press Conference
The ICEM delegation then attended a press conference in which support was conveyed to the public over changing these positions. There was also a television interview of Warda with a national channel, and all ICEM messages were well covered by the national media. 
 
The ICEM delegation also met with Gocha Kvitatiani, President of Oil, Coal, and Gas Industry Workers&rsquo; Union, an ICEM affiliate, representing around 4,000 members; Naumi Nebieridze, President of the Energy Workers&rsquo; Union, representing 5,000 members: and Amiran Zeniashvili, Vice-President of the same union; and Tamaz Dolaberidze, President of the Mining, Metallurgical and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union, which represents some 11,000 workers. 
 
All the union officials explained the difficulties in their respective sectors in carrying out union activities. Warda presented the ICEM and its activities to a group composed of 25 union leaders from the three unions and the GTUC. It was then decided to deepen solidarity and cooperation. 
 
Warda and &Ouml;zkan then travelled to Zestafoni for a meeting with workers engaged in a conflict with the Zestafoni Ferroalloys Plant and Georgian Manganese Mines. 
 
Commenting on the mission to the nations of the Caucasus, Warda, said, &ldquo;Our overall programme in Armenia and Georgia, and in general in the Trans-Caucasus, was intensive and very successful. The ICEM will continue its support of trade unions in both countries through various means.&rdquo;

ICEM Boosts Presence in the Caucasus

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Corporate leaders of US-based Massey Energy Co., including CEO Don Blankenship, came under harsh fire in Richmond, Virginia, on 18 May at the company&rsquo;s Annual General Meeting (AGM). The meeting came just six weeks after a methane gas explosion at Massey&rsquo;s non-union Upper Big Branch mine in the state of West Virginia killed 29 miners, the worst mining tragedy in 40 years in the US. 
 
The closed and highly-secured meeting saw hundreds of protesters from US trade unions, environmental groups, and health and safety advocates march from Monroe Park to the historic and posh Jefferson Hotel, the venue for the AGM. They sang songs, waved placards, and chanted slogans that Blankenship belonged in jail, not running a publicly-traded company for his arrogant abuse of mine safety and environmental stewardship in America&rsquo;s Appalachia Mountains. 

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Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) West Virginia Local 69 officers Charlie Rittenhouse and Bryan Ash joined AGM protests against Massey Energy
A corporate governance proposal put before Massey shareholders by a US labour federation&rsquo;s investment arm called for three of the Richmond-based company&rsquo;s directors to be dropped from the board. Despite the fact that there were no alternative candidates, the three &ndash; Richard Gabrys, Dan Moore, and Massey President Baxter Phillips Jr. &ndash; won with just over 50% of the vote. 
 
That constituted a near majority of institutional shareholders who have no-confidence in these directors, and caused United Mine Workers&rsquo; of America (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts to say to a news outlet, &ldquo;They got clobbered, considering the fact that they didn&rsquo;t have anybody running against them. They ran unopposed and almost lost.&rdquo; 
 
The AGM was brief and over with in less than one hour. Reporters were sequestered in another room of the hotel and when the question-and-answer period came, the video and audio feed into that room was cut off. Two protesters were arrested inside the hotel&rsquo;s ballroom, after unfurling a banner that read, &ldquo;Massey: Stop Putting Profits Over People.&rdquo; 

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UMWA President Cecil Roberts
The Upper Big Branch tragedy of 5 April has caused the US Congress to conduct an unprecedented number of hearings. There have been three since the tragedy. At a US Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on 20 May, Roberts said Massey has seen 52 miners die inside its mines in the past ten years. Blankenship testified at the same hearing that federal mine safety recommendations on ventilation upgrades actually make mines less safe. 
 
&ldquo;We opposed the changes because our engineers believed they made the ventilation less effective,&rdquo; he said, adding the company does not know if ventilation played a role in the 5 April blast. Blankenship said he thought Massey&rsquo;s safety and casualty rate in the US was &ldquo;about average,&rdquo; to which Roberts, who had both his grandfathers killed in mine accidents, said, &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t come up with another coal company that&rsquo;s had 23 miners in ten years die.&rdquo; 
 
At a subsequent US House Education and labor Committee hearing that was held near Upper Big Branch in Beckley, West Virginia, on 24 May, one miner who was fortunate to escape stated, &ldquo;we never had proper air on that longwall.&rdquo; Relatives of the deceased called Upper Big Branch &ldquo;a ticking time bomb.&rdquo; 

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Environmentalists from Rising Tide delivered a message from inside the meeting
The father of a 21-year-old victim, Adam Morgan, testified: &ldquo; &hellip; about every shift he had to do some kind of ventilation repairs and some &hellip; he had to do on his own.&rdquo; Steve Morgan said that when his son complained to supervisors on ventilation problems, he was told to find a different line of work if he was &ldquo;scared.&rdquo; 
 
An uncle of Adam Morgan also testified. Eddie Cook, a miner at a UMWA-represented colliery in West Virginia, made the point that with a union, you have the right to refuse unsafe work. At Massey, he said, &ldquo;if you refuse, they tell you to get your bucket and go home. They know if they were union that these people wouldn&rsquo;t work like they wanted them to.&rdquo; 
 
According to Massey&rsquo;s US federal regulatory filings, just 1.3% of its 6,000 US employees are members of the UMWA. And of that small portion, all work in coal preparation plants, not in underground mines.

Annual Massey Energy Meeting in US Brings Protest, Discontent

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Members of one of ICEM&rsquo;s Turkish mining affiliates, Genel Maden-İş, staged one-hour strikes across several collieries in the coal-rich Zonguldak region on 26 March in protest to government inaction over unsafe conditions in mining, as well as to government treatment of 12,000 of TEKEL, the former state tobacco company that was privatised. 
 
The one-hour strike actions, more specifically, were aimed at the horrid working conditions that caused the tragedy inside the Karadon mine, where 30 contract workers were killed on 17 May. The mine is owned by the Turkish Anthracite Coal Foundation and operated by Yapitek Construction. 
 
Genel Maden-İş, or the General Mine Workers&rsquo; Union of Turkey, which represents miners in the Zonguldak region, carried out stop-work actions for one-hour periods in each of three shifts on 26 May in scores of collieries in the Black Sea region of Zonguldak. Some 10,000 miners participated. The ICEM Executive Committee, meeting in Geneva, endorsed the strikes, calling the downing of tools a fitting response to the government of Turkey&rsquo;s non-response to repeated calls to ratify ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 

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Announcing the 26 May strikes, (center) T&Uuml;RK-İŞ President Mustafa Kumlu and Genel Maden-İş President Rasim Muslu 
Mustafa Kumlu, President of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (T&Uuml;RK-İŞ) and an ICEM Executive Committee member, said the mining industry is indispensible in Turkey, and it is the responsibility of employers and the government to reduce the risks to a very low minimum. 
 
Genel Maden-İş General President Rasim Muslu said adoption of the 2004 Mining Law in Turkey set safety in mines back, since the law opened up the mining sector to increased privaitisation. Introduction of flexible work conditions has led to inadequate training of unskilled workers, and lax safety inspections, many of which are never done on-site. The law also has brought an increase in temporary and part-time contract miners. 
 
At the ICEM&rsquo;s Executive Committee meeting, the president of another Turkish mining affiliate, T&uuml;rkiye Maden-İş President Ismail Aslan, a substitute ICEM Executive member, said obstacles inside Turkey to effectively organise workers into unions also contribute to unsafe conditions inside mines. He said it is unheard of for sub-contract employees to be affiliated to a union. 
 
The explosion at the Karadon mine, a colliery whose operations were privatised in 2006, could have been caused by dynamiting new sectors some 540 metres underground. The blast collapsed walls and support structures. Rescue efforts did manage to free eight miners. 
 
Emotions in the mining community were set aflame upon the visit on 19 May by Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Speaking at the mine gates, Erdogan callously declared that mine deaths had become the &ldquo;fate&rdquo; of mining communities, with people of the Zonguldak region &ldquo;quite used to events like these.&rdquo; 
 
The remarks triggered clashes between distraught relatives, protesters, and police.

Turkish Miners Conduct Hour-Long Strikes in Wake of Zonguldak Mine Catastrophe

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