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President Roh Moo-hyun 
1 Sejong-no, Jongno-ku, 
Seoul 110-820 
Republic of Korea 
 
By fax: +82-2-770.03.44&nbsp; 
By e-mail <a href="mailto:president@cwd.go.kr">president@cwd.go.kr</a> 
 
 
Dear Mr. President, 
 
I am writing, after having been informed by the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to protest against the ongoing trade union repression in your country of the members of the Korean Chemical and Textile Workers&rsquo; Federation (KCTF) at GS Caltex. 
 
The anti-union behaviour by GS Caltex started in 2004 when the company, with the help of the Korean police, aggressively retaliated against a strike that was organized by the workers at GS Caltex. The strike was the result of the company&rsquo;s decision to disregard a set of reasonable union demands, which were on issues such as a five-day, 40-hour work-week and the non-discrimination of contract workers. 
 
After the brutal suppression of the strike, GS Caltex continued to hit back at the union&rsquo;s members and leaders by selecting at the gate who could return and who could not. This also happened with the assistance of the police, who remained stationed inside the company for 52 days. GS Caltex also harassed families of workers and ended up dismissing almost all union officials, 30 in number. In addition, eight trade union leaders were arrested and sentenced to periods of two to three years in prison. A total of 650 other workers were disciplined with three-month suspensions from work. 
 
Since then, the company has refused to bargain in good faith with the workers, whose situation and future remains extremely insecure. I am calling upon your government to assist in ending the desperate situation of the KCTF members. GS Caltex needs to come to a fair and honest agreement with its workers and end its unfair labour practices. Also, the dismissed union leaders must be reinstated. 
 
Thanking you in advance for your kind cooperation 
 
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
 
(Name) 
(Title) 
(Union)

Model protest letter to Korean government

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The ICEM is saddened to learn of the death in late December of South African labour leader Muzi Buthelezi, 53, a former Executive Committee member of the ICEM. He was general secretary of the Chemical Workers&rsquo; Industrial Union (CWIU) and the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union (CEPPWAWU). 
Comrade Buthelezi headed the CWIU when it merged with PPWAWU in February 1999 and became the first general secretary of the 92,000-member CEPPWAWU. He stepped down in 2002 and became chairman of CEPPWAWU Investments, the union&rsquo;s Provident Fund, where he became prominent in black economic empowerment projects. 
He was a leader inside COSATU and a convenor for South Africa&rsquo;s National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC), a tripartite statutory body aimed at achieving positive social and labour legislation. He was also chairman of Imithi, a black empowerment consortium which took a stake in South Africa&rsquo;s largest generic medicines manufacturer, Aspen Pharmacare, of which CEPPWAWU Investments owns a stake. He had been a director of Aspen.

ICEM Mourns Death of South Africa’s Muzi Buthelezi

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In the UK, GMB union members who are engineers and technicians at British Gas tentatively resolved their pension dispute after conducting one of five scheduled industrial actions. The 6,000 GMB members came to terms pending a vote with the Centrica-owned utility on 19 December. 
The compromise agreement will allow 1,700 workers hired after 1 January 2003, to become part of the existing final salary pension scheme. The union resisted a money-purchase pension scheme for new hires, and opted instead for a career-average salary scheme for all new recruits hired after 31 March 2006. Contract information sessions with membership began last week, and voting results are expected on 23 January.

GMB Members Halt Industrial Actions at British Gas

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In the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, members of ICEM affiliate International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) voted 2 January to continue their five-month strike against US-based National Gypsum. Some 90 IUOE Local 721B members are striking the company at a quarry in Milford and at a loading dock in Burnside, over proposed changes to their pension plan, contracting out demands, and weakening of seniority rights. 
A proposal put forward by a provincial mediator, late in 2005, produced no significant changes from the company&rsquo;s initial offer. The strike began 10 August 2005, some five months after a prior contract expired. The quarry produces rock used in building materials for the US housing market. National Gypsum has been attempting to operate the two workplaces with replacement workers.

Operating Engineers Remain on Strike in Canada

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Contract talks between a branch of Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada and Stora Enso were extended until 11 January in efforts to avert a lockout at a 660-worker pulp and paper mill in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia. 
The Swedish-Finnish paper company last week extended a nine-day holiday shutdown of the mill that began on 24 December 2005. On 30 December, Stora Enso&rsquo;s North American management issued a 48-hour lockout notice under provisions of the provincial labour code. Early in December, workers passed a strike vote by 98%. Last ditch bargaining efforts to find a resolve began on 3 January, ran through the week including Saturday, and will resume 11 January. 
The key issue in talks now is said to center on contracting out issues. Members of CEP Local 972 have been without a current contract at the magazine papers and newsprint mill since June 2004.

CEP, Stora Enso Still Engaged in Canadian Paper Talks

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The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has also promised industrial actions and strikes in order to gain early renewal collective agreements in the country&rsquo;s manufacturing sector. Some 700 enterprise agreements expire in March and April, and the union has set as a goal 5.5% wage increases, along with measures to improve productivity and training. 
AMWU has also promised industrial actions if Howard government reforms occur to existing labour law. Bargaining in the manufacturing sector is expected to be the first major test if reforms on enterprise bargaining are passed by Australia&rsquo;s Parliament early this year.

Australian Manufacturing Union Moves Toward Enterprise Agreement Renewals

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Contract maintenance workers at BP&rsquo;s Kwinana refinery, who are members of ICEM affiliate Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), won a five-week strike in mid-December 2005. The 86 workers, employed by United Group, won their full pay demands of nearly A$10 per hour over three years, which will give them parity with BP&rsquo;s maintenance workers. 
The strikers along with other United Group contract workers at both the Alcoa refinery in Wagerup and the Ravensthorp nickel project were targeted by the Howard government&rsquo;s watchdog Building and Construction Commission for conducting unprotected strike actions under the government&rsquo;s new and regressive Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act.

Maintenance Contractors End BP Australian Strike

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US oil supermajor ConocoPhillips has defied both Australian and East Timorese oil and maritime workers by employing a flag of convenience ship to transport liquid natural gas from Australia to Japan. The company, which owns 64% of the Bayu-Undan gas field in the Timor Sea, was set to send it first shipment of LNG to Japanese utility customers last week from Darwin, in northern Australia. 
The company has hired no Timorese or Australian crew members to work on the vessel, said the Maritime Workers Union of East Timor. ConocoPhillips had earlier ignored East Timor government initiatives to build a gas processing facility on East Timor soil for the new field, choosing instead to build a 500-kilometre pipeline to Darwin. 
The Bayu-Undan field is in disputed East Timorese waters off the country&rsquo;s southern coast. The Maritime Union of Australia has pledged to get East Timorese workers involved in Bayu-Undan&rsquo;s new production, and both unions promise an international campaign against ConocoPhillips. This will become a topic of the newly-organised Joint ICEM-ITF Oil and Gas Trade Union Alliance.

ConocoPhillips Snubs Union Labour in Shipping

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Contract workers, employed by some 400 companies providing services to world leader copper producer Codelco in Chile, are striking for bonuses to gain a fair share of rising copper prices that have reached record highs on international markets. 
The 28,000 contract employees, working from food service to transport, struck all four divisions of state-owned Codelco&rsquo;s across Chile two weeks ago and are seeking bonuses totalling US$970. On 4 January, police used tear gas to disperse strikers from roads leading to the El Teniente mine, the world&rsquo;s largest underground copper mines and one of the four divisions. 
Contract workers earn less than half of what the 15,000 full-time, unionised workers of Codelco earn. Copper currently is selling at a record high of US$4,575 a tonne, and Chile through its Codelco earnings realized US$5.3 billion in profit through export of copper in 2005.

Contract Workers in Chilean Copper Mines Strike

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Industrianst&auml;llda I Norden, or Nordic IN, is the new name of a merged labour union federation covering five Nordic countries&mdash;Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Two federations&mdash;Nordic Metal and NIF, representing workers in chemicals, paper and textile industries&mdash;merged 1 January in a move bringing 22 national unions into a single Nordic industrial federation.
Nordic IN intends to safeguard the Nordic social model, characterized by modern and efficient social security systems, equality, democratic influence, and bargaining structures at both the local and national levels. Former ICEM Officer Jyrki Raina is the general secretary of the new federation.
&nbsp;

Five-Country Nordic Industrial Trade Union Federation Forms

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