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ICEM HIV/AIDS Regional Workshop 
 
National HIV/AIDS Coordinators from ten sub-Saharan African countries participated in the Regional Workshop in Johannesburg from 4 to 7 December 2006. The workshop was the fourth in a series of workshops held in the framework of the HIV/AIDS projects for the African region during the 2005-2006 project cycle. 
It followed two workshops for national coordinators in 2005 (on initiation and strategies and developing the collective bargaining manual) and one earlier in 2006 on peer education. 
 
The objectives of the workshop were: to identify immediate targets for fundraising, to build arguments on co-investment, to develop own workplace programmes and to write HIV/AIDS projects. The workshop was based on website research and project identification and project writing in small groups. 
 
On fundraising for HIV/AIDS activities it was stressed that funding sources are decentralised. Partnerships have to be built at national and international level; &ldquo;friendly technicians&rdquo; have to be found to help in the development of proposals as unions lack the capacity to work with non-traditional methods and arguments (public/private partnerships, co-investment). 
The working of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) was explained. The need to have unions on the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) was emphasised. 
 
It was stressed again that unions must take the lead for workers to be tested. Without knowing their status, there can be no follow-up on HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and support services. Unions can only advocate VCT to employers if workers are secure in their employment. 
Testing at company level is a problem if workers are not confident that results are not passed on, with dismissal as a possible consequence. Workplaces policies and clauses in collective agreements are therefore necessary. An objective should also be to pursue training to have unionists as highly-qualified counsellors. 
 
Two outside experts from the ILOAIDS programme and the German GTZ talked about Tripartite Action in the World of Work and the ACCA (AIDS Control in Companies in Africa) and BACKUP (Building Alliances &ndash; Creating Knowledge &ndash; Updating Partners) programmes respectively. 
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World AIDS Day &ndash; 1 December 
 
Workers and their organisations play an important role in making World AIDS Day a success, yet they are often not recognised for their efforts. Global leaders have promised to deliver Universal Access to HIV/AIDS services for prevention, care and support and treatment by 2010. For unions and workers, this promise needs to become a reality in every workplace. 
 
ICEM affiliates all over the world commemorated World AIDS Day. In summary it can be said that there has been a big improvement in the involvement and activities. Leaders are taking leadership on the issue more seriously and the reported involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS is encouraging. 
 
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, companies and unions organised rallies with banners &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s kill AIDS!&rdquo; In Mali, fairs with information on HIV/AIDS were organised. In C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire, companies and unions campaigned for testing. In Tanzania, trade unions and PLWHA were represented at the central event in the northern part of the country. Testing and treatment were advocated at a number of mines. 
 
Stigma was the central theme in Botswana where peer educators organised stalls on wellness to drive home the fact that HIV is a condition like others. Apart from the main government-sponsored event in Namibia, the MUN and companies organised HIV/AIDS activities in three southern mines. In Nigeria, NUPENG branches, in cooperation with companies, organised &ldquo;Know Your Status&rdquo; campaigns with testing facilities on site. PERESSA organised prevention campaigns in remote communities. 
 
In Zambia, the union was involved in condom promotion and VCT advocacy. In Ghana, the GMWU worked with Gold Fields in Tarkwa to launch the workplace policy and to inaugurate the VCT centre at the Tarkwa district hospital, which was refurbished with a grant from Gold Field and AngloGold Ashanti. 
 
In India, INMF branches and the Institute for Miners and Metal Workers&rsquo; Education were particularly active in Chhattisgarh state with rallies, debates and competitions on prevention. 
 
On 1 December, the Financial Times published a special supplement on Business and AIDS. 
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Violence against Women and HIV/AIDS 
 
In conjunction with World AIDS Day (December 1) and International Women Human Rights Defenders Day (November 29), the Center for Women's Global Leadership launched the online version of its new human rights report, Strengthening Resistance: Confronting Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS. 
 
Women in both the global South and North face not only staggering rates of HIV infection, but also un-abating levels of violence, whether at the hands of male partners, police, or community members. While most see these as distinct, women around the world are now calling attention to the ways these experiences can be fundamentally linked. 
When women are - or are even perceived - to be HIV positive, they are at risk of violence, discrimination and other human rights violations. And when women are sexually assaulted, whether in conflict situations or in their homes, they are at risk of contracting HIV. 
 
UNAIDS estimates that there are 17.7 million women living with HIV. There is an urgent need for activists and policymakers to create links between these two crises as they create and reinforce each other. Strengthening Resistance focuses on the points of intersection in the social, political and public health crises of violence against women and HIV/AIDS. 
It provides an overview of the most salient issues, including challenges presented by restrictive and ideologically-driven government donor policies, as well as information on coalition building across HIV and women's movements. It is designed for activists, human rights defenders and policy makers alike. The report highlights nine creative advocacy initiatives from different countries and regions, including South Africa, Haiti, Vietnam, Spain and India. 
 
(Source: Press Release of the Center for Women's Global Leadership, 30 November. The report is available at 
<a href="http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/publications/strengthening.pdf">http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/ 
publications/strengthening.pdf</a>.)
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Global Fund and PEPFAR Announce New Treatment Numbers 
 
The Global Fund and the US President&rsquo;s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) announced on December 1, World AIDS Day, that between them they are now supporting antiretroviral treatment for 1.2 million people living with AIDS. This represents a three-fold increase in the total number of people receiving treatment in low- and middle-income countries since December 2003, and a doubling over the course of the past year. 
 
&ldquo;Four years ago, almost nobody in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world was receiving treatment. That well over one million people with AIDS are now on treatment through the support of Global Fund and PEPFAR is a remarkable achievement,&rdquo; said Richard Feachem, Executive Director of the Fund. 
 
In their joint statement, the Fund and PEPFAR said that at the end of September 2006, 822,000 people received support for treatment through PEPFAR&rsquo;s bilateral programs, in fifteen focus countries. The Global Fund supported treatment for 770,000 people worldwide. Approximately 400,000 people in PEPFAR focus countries received treatment support from both PEPFAR and the Global Fund, and are thus counted in the totals for each organisation. 
 
Note from the GFO Editor: When the Global Fund and PEPFAR say that they &ldquo;support&rdquo; treatment for a specific number of people worldwide, this does not mean that their grants &ldquo;provide&rdquo; all aspects of treatment to that many people. 
This is because other funders, including national governments, employers, and the infected people themselves, make significant contributions to the costs of providing treatment to many of the people included in the Global Fund and PEPFAR numbers. For instance, in Country X, the Fund and/or PEPFAR might pay for something like clinical testing or second line medications, with all other costs for those same patients being covered by other players. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer Issue 69, 14 December 2006 &ndash; GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org/">www.aidspan.org</a>) 
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New Report Focuses on Stigma 
 
The stigma associated with HIV works as a barrier to take advantage of medical advances as it often prevents people affected by HIV from accessing testing or treatment services. This is the conclusion of a new report, Unveiling the Truth, published jointly by Health and Development Networks (HDN) and the global AIDS-Care-Watch Campaign on World AIDS Day. Based on presentations made at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto, in August 2006, 40 articles deal with the continuing presence of stigma. 
 
According to the report, hospitals, clinics and other health care settings are among the places where people living with HIV still experience HIV-related stigma. &ldquo;HIV-relate stigma cannot be tackled until health systems are strengthened at the local level so that everyone has access to basic health care&rdquo;, comments Mary Robinson, President of Realising Rights in her foreword. &ldquo;Adopting this approach with those affected by HIV and AIDS must be central to all our endeavours.&rdquo; 
 
(Source: Break the Silence &ndash; Issue 1 &ndash; December 2006 and Press Release HDN, 30 November. The report can be downloaded from <a href="http://www.hdnet.org">www.hdnet.org</a>) 
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Workers and Employers Joint Action in Africa 
 
The African Regional Organisation of the ITUC and the International Organisation of Employers jointly organised a capacity-building meeting on HIV/AIDS for workers and employers in Kampala, 12-14 December 2006 with the support of the ILO and the International Training Centre, Turin. 
 
The objective of the meeting was to evaluate programmes and activities implemented within the IOE-ICFTU joint agreement on HIV/AIDS of 2003 and the action plan agreed in Geneva in 2004, as well as to build capacity in project management. The meeting also discussed ways of strengthening partnerships with key agencies at national level and of mobilising resources &ndash; particularly through the Global Fund &ndash; in order to scale up joint employer and union action on HIV/AIDS through the workplace. 
 
(Source: ILO website <a href="http://www.ilo.org">www.ilo.org</a> where the recommendations can also be found) 
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Clinton Announces Breakthrough in HIV/AIDS Treatment for Children 
 
On the eve of World AIDS Day, former US President Bill Clinton announced in New Delhi that his Foundation has negotiated new agreements to lower the price of HIV/AIDS treatment for children. 
 
Indian drug companies Cipla and Ranbaxy will price the new child-friendly product &ndash; a three-in-one dispersible tablet that replaces individual solutions which need refrigeration &ndash; for less than USD 60 per year for an average child. 
UNITAID, the new international drug purchase facility established in October 2006 (see ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin No. 14, November 2006), will provide the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) with USD 35 million in 2007 to buy medicines and diagnostics and CHAI will contribute USD 15 million for technical assistance to work in 40 countries to treat more than 100,000 additional HIV-positive children in 2007. 
 
&ldquo;Though the world has made progress in expanding HIV/AIDS treatment to adults, children have been left behind. Only one in 10 children who need treatment is getting it,&rdquo; said President Clinton. 
 
(Source: Clinton Foundation Press Release, 30 November)
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ILOAIDS 2006 Report on HIV/AIDS and Work 
 
A new ILO report estimates that more than a million new jobs a year are being lost because of AIDS. It says the workplace should become a major focus for prevention and access to treatment. 
The relentless advance of HIV/AIDS is markedly reducing economic and employment growth in the countries hit hardest by the epidemic, jeopardizing their efforts to reduce poverty, create new jobs for young people and fight child labour, says a new ILO report released on 1 December. 
HIV/AIDS and work: global estimates, impact on children and youth, and response 2006 reports that about 36.3 million people of working age are now living with HIV/AIDS - the vast majority in sub-Saharan Africa. 
 
Moreover, the report says that a reduction in employment growth resulting in 1 million fewer jobs per year in the worst-hit countries is attributable to the epidemic. 
The report presents an economic model which captures the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on economic and employment growth in 43 countries with over 1 per cent HIV/AIDS prevalence, for which sufficient data were available. This made it possible to arrive at an estimate of the annual cost to the global economy in terms of curtailed job growth. 
 
The 43 worst-hit countries lost, on average, 0.5 percentage points in their rate of economic growth every year between 1992 and 2004 due to the epidemic. Among them, 31 countries in sub-Saharan Africa lost 0.7 percentage points of their average annual rate of economic growth and forfeited 0.5 percentage points in employment growth. Altogether, the job shortfall is put at 1.3 million a year, of which 1.1 million were lost in Africa alone. 
The impact of the epidemic is particularly severe for children and young people whose lives, hopes and future are blighted directly or indirectly by HIV/AIDS. Globally, 2.3 million children live with AIDS and there are an estimated 15 million AIDS orphans. When children in worst-affected countries do reach working age, they face a severe shortage of legitimate job opportunities. 
 
(Source: ILO ACTRAV Human Rights at Work 6, December 2006 and ILOAIDS website, where the report can be downloaded)&nbsp;

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 16

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Seventeen contract workers in Bangkok won a mixed decision on 30 November in a central labour court case dating back nearly three years. Goodyear Thailand Ltd. was ordered to pay more than one year&rsquo;s backpay to the 17, who were sacked by the US-based company in October 2005 for exerting their legitimate right to collective bargaining. 
Despite several of the 17 contract employees working at Goodyear&rsquo;s tyre-making plant back to 1996, the court ruled that backpay awards only be granted them from the effective date of the collective agreement inside the factory, August 2004, to their dismissal dates. The union representing the workers, the Tyre Makers&rsquo; Union of ICEM affiliate Petroleum and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Federation (PCFT), is studying an appeal to the decision, while Goodyear has appealed the ruling. 
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The 17 contract workers had previously won an Industrial Court Commission ruling, calling for reinstatement. But when they turned up at the factory for work on 3 May 2006, management refused entry. 
On 31 October 2006, another contract employee, Chalom Kongnok, won backpay totalling one year of work service, plus 50,000 baht for his dismissal. Chalom&rsquo;s dismissal came in December 2005, when he refused to sign a one-year renewal of his temporary work contract.
The workers were all long-term contract workers employed in the warehouse and rubber stock department of Goodyear&rsquo;s Bangkok tyre factory. 
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Goodyear Newsletter
The United Steelworkers, currently on strike against Goodyear in the US and Canada published&nbsp;the global newsletter, called &lsquo;Global Solidarity. The&nbsp;'Newsletter for Unionised Goodyear Workers Worldwide&rsquo;, is available&nbsp;on the ICEM web-site in&nbsp;<a href="/en/111-Goodyear/2052-Global-Solidarity-a-Newsletter-for-Unionised-Goodyear-Workers-Worldwide">English</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="/es/?id=111&amp;doc=2052">Spanish</a>.

17 Goodyear Contract Workers Win Year’s Backpay at Thai Tyre Factory

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November, and to date December, have been two of the cruellest months in Chinese coal mines regarding tragedies and deaths. Disasters occurred in such frequency over the last weekend of November &ndash; 102 deaths in five separate coal mine mishaps &ndash; that the director of China&rsquo;s State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), Li Yizhong, lashed out at operators, provincial regulators and local authorities during a teleconference of safety officials on 28 November. 
 
Li called the month of November &ldquo;unprecedented&rdquo; in terms of death and family loss in the country&rsquo;s collieries. In a rare departure from the customary Chinese norm by top officials of reserve and calm, Li expressed outrage during his animated and angry teleconference. In some provinces, he told of corrupt practices in which closed mines are reopened, unlicensed mines are allowed to operate, and local and provincial officials, upon getting orders to shut a certain mine, intentionally close a smaller, less profitable one in the area in order that a higher producing mine stays open. 
 
&ldquo;How many lives do we have to lose before they learn from the lesson?&rdquo; Li asked. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t let unscrupulous mine owners kill more people in their final frenzy to make a profit.&rdquo; In November, the accident rate was nearly 22% over that of October, with some 440 miners dying in a total of some 150 accidents. In Shanxi province alone, a methane gas explosion at an unlicensed mine which killed 24 on 25 November drove the death toll for the month in the province to over 100. 
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The rash of mine accidents of late stems from extremely high demand as the winter peak season approaches. Operators and mine regulators have ignored orders to close unsafe mines, and are flouting safety rules in order to meet current demand. 
 
Over the final weekend of November, besides the gas blast at the unlicensed mine in Shanxi province, two other mine tragedies on 25 November killed a total of 56 miners, while the next day at the Linaying coal mine near Leding city, Jiangxi province, nine were killed and seven others injured in yet another explosion. The 25 November tragedies occurred at the privately-owned Chanyuan mine in Yunnan province where 32 miners perished, and at the Yuanhua mine in Heilongjiang province in which 26 died. 
 
At the Chanyuan mine, local authorities had been under orders to close the two-year-old mine that contains over six million tonnes of coal reserves because of inadequate safety equipment, but had changed those orders and closed a smaller mine instead. 
 
On 27 November, a coal supply tower collapsed at a mine in Guizhou province, killing four workers. And then a day after Li&rsquo;s tirade, on 29 November, 11 died near Wuwei city, Gansu province, when the vice-director of an illegal mine opened a closed shaft for further production. He was one of the 11 killed from the sudden gas explosion.
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December began with the same death wave inside China&rsquo;s mines. On 1 December, the privately-owned and properly licensed Chengjin coal mine near Jixi city, Heilongjiang province, witnessed a gas blast that killed eight. Two days later, a roof collapsed at the Guanyin mine in Lianyaun city, Hunan province, killing 12. SAWS had revoked the safety license of the mine at the time of the accident. Interestingly, after the mine owner fled to avoid arrest, a relative of his stepped forward and sent 300,000 Yuan (US$38,000) to the local government to offset the cost of the rescue. 
 
Last week, on 7 December, walls burst and flooding occurred at the Ping&rsquo;an coal mine in Fuxin, Liaoning province. The tragedy killed eight, with the bodies of two missing miners only recovered yesterday. A day after the Liaoning flood, on 8 December, another flood, only this time at a gold mine in Shaanxi province, drowned six miners. That occurred when officials of Tongma Mining Co., which administers the mine, illegally set off underground explosives in order to open an abandoned mine shaft. The shaft had filled with water. 
 
These human errors were similar to one exactly a month earlier, which began this latest death wave inside China&rsquo;s mines. On 8 November, 13 miners died inside the Xinpo coal mine near Leiyang city, Hunan province, when a boss, seeking higher production, ordered electric drills into a shaft despite high readings of methane gas levels.

China Sees Rash of Mine Tragedies in November and December

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Some 600 members of ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South African struck gold acquisition and producing company Centurion Gold Holdings Inc. in Germiston, near Johannesburg, on 7 December. Several hundred miners at the company&rsquo;s Primrose mine and ore processing plant went on strike because management reneged on a pledge to keep all standing agreements intact from a previous employer, according to the South African Press Association. 
 
Miners are also seeking a doubling of their salaries. Miners at the Primrose mine are some of the lowest paid in the Central Rand gold belt, with monthly salaries totalling only R1,000 per month. Since Johannesburg-based Centurion bought the mine and processing plant from privately-held Glencairn Mining Co. in February 2004, the company has doubled production and has begun processing ore at Primrose from two other gold mines it owns in South Africa. 

<img height="103" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The company has refused to bargain with the NUM branch union over conditions, and a union spokesman said the NUM has taken the matter to South Africa&rsquo;s labour courts. Miners have seen a rollback in the number of annual leave days that they received under Glencairn, as well as a death benefit, and other working conditions have worsened as well. 
 
Centurion has indicated it would evict strikers from company-owned hostels, and the NUM is petitioning the courts to prevent that. The NUM national Executive Committee, meeting on Friday, 8 December, gave the strike and Centurion&rsquo;s callous behaviour over union recognition and inferior work conditions its full attention.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;
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Centurion was formed in 2003 to acquire and operate mine properties in South Africa and elsewhere. The company boosts that it was formed to &ldquo;exploit&rdquo; South African legislation passed in 2004 that cedes mining claims back to the public trust if they go undeveloped within a designated time frame. 
The company, publicly traded in the US, carries out prospecting and development of mining lands. Besides Primrose, it operates the Omaruru gold mine in Mpumulanga, the Sellies gold mine near Johannesburg, as well as a chrome-bearing mining operation. It is also currently involved in development of the Naboom platinum project in South Africa.

South African Miners Strike Gold Mine to Retain Work Standards

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The International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) has marked today, 11 December, as an international Day of Action in support of Napoleon G&oacute;mez Urrutia, the trade union official from the Mexican National Miners and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (SNTMMSRM) who has been removed by the federal government. 
The IMF&rsquo;s &ldquo;Call for Justice&rdquo; campaign includes demonstrations and actions at Mexican embassies and consulates throughout the world, backing up a mass march in Mexico City and industrial actions around the country. 
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G&oacute;mez, who was elected General Secretary of SNTMMSRM in 2002, was unpopular with a large part of the ruling elite as he organised a free and democratic union. 
On 19 February 2006, an explosion occurred at the Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s Pasta de Conchos coal mine in the northern Mexican State of Coahuilla. Information on the cause of the explosion, which killed 65 miners, including 40 contract workers, was scarce and inconsistent. G&oacute;mez then termed the disaster an &ldquo;industrial homicide&rdquo; and charged both company and government safety officials with neglect for Mexico&rsquo;s worst mine tragedy this year. 
 
Just two days before the explosion, the Mexican government had &ldquo;withdrawn recognition&rdquo; of G&oacute;mez as General Secretary of the union, after it received an unauthenticated request from supposed members of the union&rsquo;s Vigilance and Justice Committee to remove him. 
 
G&oacute;mez was accused of corruption in relation to a trust fund, and removed from his post by the Labour Ministry. He was replaced by Elias Morales, a person close not only to officials inside the Labour Ministry, but also to officials of Grupo M&eacute;xico. Many members of SNTMMSRM refuse to accept the allegations against G&oacute;mez, and numerous strikes broke out in support of him. During a police intervention in one such strike in April, two miners were killed. 
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The facts behind the fraud and corruption case appear to be inconsistent. For example, one of the suspicious and alleged unauthorised transfers of money abroad was the payment of affiliation fees to the IMF. The IMF is calling for &ldquo;efforts to be made to inform the public about the use of the trust fund.&rdquo; 
 
The removal of Napoleon G&oacute;mez from his post is clearly a breach of the union&rsquo;s autonomy and needs to be seen as a violation of the ILO Convention No. 87 on freedom of association, which has been ratified by Mexico. Any decision to remove the trade union leader from duty is up to the SNTMMSRM and its democratic structures. 
<img height="61" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Napoleon G&oacute;mez has the active support of ICEM North American affiliate United Steelworkers (USW). In a press communication last month, the USW stated, &ldquo;The government of Mexico violated the NAFTA labour side agreement when it removed the leader of the National Mineworkers&rsquo; Union from office.&rdquo; The USW has had a solidarity pact with the Mexican Mineworkers since 2004, and solidly supports the return of G&oacute;mez to his rightful union leadership position. 
 
More information, including a report of a fact-finding mission to Mexico, can be found on the IMF&rsquo;s website at this link: <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/main/index.cfm?n=47&amp;l=2&amp;c=14233">http://www.imfmetal.org/main/index.cfm?n=47&amp;l=2&amp;c=14233</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;

IMF Supports Mexican Mining Leader Napoleon Gómez in ‘Day of Action’

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It took a four-month-long struggle, but workers at the F&aacute;brica Neum&aacute;ticos de Avanzada (NA), a competition-tyre making company in C&oacute;rdoba, Argentina, finally reached an agreement with their company. Workers were represented by ICEM affiliate Sindicato &Uacute;nico de Trabajadores del Neum&aacute;tico Argentino (SUTNA) throughout the dispute. 
 
As reported in Issue 67 of InBrief, from 16 October, (<a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/1991-SUTNA-Rubber-Dispute-in-Argentina-Hardens">/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/1991-SUTNA-Rubber-Dispute-in-Argentina-Hardens</a>), trade union representatives and their family members had been threatened, harassed, and intimated after the company, in early August, sacked 25 SUTNA members.
<img height="93" src="" width="200" alt="" />
The bitter dispute followed a historic agreement, signed last summer, between SUTNA and the country&rsquo;s rubber employers&rsquo; association, which covers the entire rubber sector. NA refused to go along with the accord, and began discriminating against workers who were SUTNA members. 
 
With the support of SUTNA, workers at NA now have their rights fully recognised. The agreement includes the reinstatement of two dismissed workers, as well as full compensation payments for all workers that were dismissed. 
 
Pedro Wasiejko, General Secretary of SUTNA, welcomes the step forward, but also said that the union &ldquo;will continue to take action on the accusations of intimidation against workers during the dispute, so that measures can be taken against those responsible for these inadmissible acts.&rdquo;

Argentinean Rubber Workers Reach Agreement with Specialty Tyre-maker

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Nigeria&rsquo;s two oil workers&rsquo; unions, ICEM affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN, last week condemned the management of state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) for the unilateral and irregular dismissal of 3,000 staff, the majority of whom are members of the blue-collar and white-collar unions. 
 
In a statement, PENGASSAN General Secretary Bago Olowoshile blasted senior management of the company for failing to engage in a dialogue with the unions and breaching proper protocol by excluding members of the unions&rsquo; NNPC Group Executive Council in redundancy deliberations. 
<img height="119" alt="" src="" width="115" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<img height="105" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The two unions called the sackings &ldquo;premature and ill-timed&rdquo;, forcing &ldquo;unplanned severance&rdquo; on to the affected workers and their dependents. The sudden downsizing appears to be a furthering of reforms to NNPC and part of an overall privatisation process. NUPENGASSAN, the cooperative and effective aegis of the two labour unions, is insistent that management of NNPC and all Nigerian officials, especially those inside the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), be made to &ldquo;put a human face&rdquo; on all privatisation matters. 
 
But the voice of public reason in Nigeria was critical and forthright on NNPC&rsquo;s latest closed-door decision making. 
 
&ldquo;The failure of NNPC to involve the National Secretariat of the two Unions as the situation demands is nothing but a flagrant violation of our grievance and Trade Dispute processes and a serious attempt to provoke and incite the members of both NUPENG and PENGASSAN on this damning posture and its ripple effects on the entire oil and gas industry,&rdquo; read the statement. 
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The two unions called for NNPC to live up to the specific language contained in the Disengagement Package as outlined in the 13 October 2005 collective agreement, which was signed by all parties. 
 
In August, the two unions heavily criticised DPE and NNPC for failing to abide by transparent and common good practices in selling state asset Eleme Petro Chemical Ltd., a subsidiary of NNPC. The Nigerian state seriously undervalued the olefins refinery in Port Harcourt when it sold the polyethylene and polypropylene refinery to a Thailand-based investment start-up called Indorama.

NUPENGASSAN Condemns Sacking of 3,000 NNPC Workers

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On 30 November, the Conseil Constitutionnel in France took a decision that postpones the merger plans of two European energy giants, Gaz de France (GDF) and Suez Group, by at least another seven months. The constitutional court ruled that, since GDF is a public service, the merger cannot go forward before 1 July 2007, which is when the French gas market opens up for competition. 
 
French trade unions had already managed, through earlier legal encounters, to postpone the merger until 2007. (See: <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2047-Unions-Win-Important-Legal-Battle-in-GDF-Suez-Merger-Saga">/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2047-Unions-Win-Important-Legal-Battle-in-GDF-Suez-Merger-Saga</a>) 
<img height="99" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Many observers and experts, including large portions of the investment community, now believe that the GDF-Suez merger may not happen at all. One major reason behind this thinking is that this latest court decision postpones a possible merger until well after the presidential elections in France, which take place in the spring of 2007. The French Socialist Party, currently in opposition, has said it will stop the merger if it wins.
The Constitutional Council did, however, validate the article of the energy law that allows GDF to be privatised. FNME-CGT, the majority trade union at GDF, now seeks another reading of that law before the French Parliament. The union argues that the Council changed the text of the law, which means it is no longer the same text that had been adopted by Parliament. 
 
Unions in France have been resisting the privatisation of GDF through the merger with Suez from the very beginning. The State of France currently holds 80.2% of GDF. In the event of a merger with Franco-Belgian Suez Group, that ownership stake would be reduced to 34%.

GDF-Suez Merger Further Delayed by Court Ruling

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UK ICEM affiliate Amicus denounced French multinational Saint-Gobain&rsquo;s decision to reduce the number of workers at its Stanton Iron Works plant in Ikeston, Derbyshire. The company announced on 5 December that is was cutting 220 of 400 jobs, beginning in April 2007, citing price increases in scrap steel and high energy costs. 
 
Amicus called the holiday-season announcement &ldquo;a heavy blow to the workers who face an uncertain few months ahead,&rdquo; and the union immediately scheduled meetings with management to discuss the need for redundancies and to begin enhanced severance talks. 
Saint-Gobain&rsquo;s announcement said it would retain flange pipe making at Stanton, and keep customer servicing staff based in Derbyshire. But the community loses the production of water pipes, which it has been supplying to the UK&rsquo;s water-delivery system for decades. The Paris-based company said the work will now be done in France and Germany. 
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Amicus said that the loss of 220 jobs in Ikeston will lift November&rsquo;s job-loss totals in the East Midlands to nearly 1,000. Amicus has been campaigning and lobbying the government to introduce better employment laws that protects UK workers and assist more in alternative job placements. 
 
Amicus has also been calling for a statutory entitlement to be established that provides workers with a skills and training agenda, as well as for a statutory employer investment fund for training. Amicus says the current tone and level of the debate over jobs and training is &ldquo;largely irrelevant&rdquo; next to the tens of thousands of high-skilled and well-paid jobs that have left the UK. 
 
Amicus Assistant General Secretary Tony Burke provided a stark reminder on why the UK was in such a jobs crisis: &ldquo;Employers have neglected to invest in the skills of their workforces for decades. This under-investment means that we now have to run to stand still in terms of up-skilling.&rdquo;

Amicus Refutes Saint-Gobain’s 50% Reductions in UK Pipe Manufacturing

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In a display of political manoeuvring that will have a devastating effect on millions of contract workers, South Korea&rsquo;s Grand National Party (GNP) and Uri Party combined to pass a series of bills in the final days of the most current National Assembly session. 
Included among those bills were three so-called &ldquo;irregular workers&rsquo; bills,&rdquo; which will give Korean employers a virtual unlimited license to use and discard contract and agency workers. 
 
The contract workers&rsquo; bills, along with hundreds of other bills, had been held up by the GNP throughout the current 100-day legislative session over opposition to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun&rsquo;s choice for president of the country&rsquo;s highest court, the Constitutional Court. 
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But in mid-November, Roh withdrew the nomination of his close friend, Chon Hyo-suk, and two weeks later, on 30 November, GNP members inside the Assembly sided with Roh&rsquo;s Uri Party members to push into law the liberalisation of contract workers. 
 
GNP support for the measures meant that the Uri Party&rsquo;s 139 members had the necessary majority in the 297-seat Assembly for passage. But passage did not come without controversy. The Uri Party Speaker of the Assembly bypassed a key committee and took the bills straight to a plenary session for final vote. Passage occurred despite vehement opposition from South Korea&rsquo;s two labour federations, and members of the Democratic Labor Party. 
 
The new irregular workers&rsquo; law will, beginning in July 2007, allow employers with 300 workers or more to utilise contract or agency workers for up to two years before they must be made permanent. The same policy becomes effective in July 2008 for companies with 100 to 299 workers. For companies with fewer than 100 workers, the two-year period takes effect in September 2008. 
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&ldquo;South Korea has effectively opened a revolving door for the use of contract and agency workers,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &ldquo;Employers can now use, abuse, and then discard contract workers within a two-year time period, which certainly will prove to be detrimental to sustainable and family-supporting full-time direct employment inside the country.&rdquo; 
 
South Korea currently is one of the highest ranking OECD countries in terms of contract workers, with estimates of up to 50%, or 8.5 million workers, engaged in work in part-time or temporary status. 
 
In another legislative action before the National Assembly, a committee late last week passed a controversial labour reform measure which includes the three-year suspension of a pay ban for full-time union members, as well as allowing multiple unions to take hold inside a workplace, effective in December 2009. 
The reform bill, passed by the labour committee on 8 December, must now go before the judiciary committee before it is expected to be voted on in plenary session this week.

Korea’s National Assembly Passes Regressive Contract and Agency Labour Regulations

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