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A pattern-setting agreement in the US rubber sector was achieved 5 August, following successful ratification by 4,000 members of United Steelworkers (USW) at three Michelin plants. The three-year labour agreement, now effective at Michelin&rsquo;s BF Goodrich plants in Fort Wayne, state of Indiana, and Opelika and Tuscaloosa, both in the state of Alabama, preserves job security and prevents future layoffs at the three plants for the contract&rsquo;s duration. 
 
USW trade unionists at all three facilities voted in favour of the agreement. The common contract needed acceptance by workers at two of the three plants in order to pass. 
 
&ldquo;We believe we achieved our industry goals when it comes to protecting retiree health care benefits and securing additional job protection measures for our active members,&rdquo; stated USW Executive Vice President Ron Hoover. 
 
The BF Goodrich agreement does grant the company some lowered operational costs. The accord makes room for 435 rubber workers at the combined plants to take retirement with an enhanced package that includes up to 40 weeks of pay, depending on length of employment. 
 
USW will now shift bargaining efforts to Bridgestone/Firestone (BSF), talks which have already begun. The union represents 6,000 BSF employees at eight manufacturing plants. The USW and Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber also are in negotiations, but the two sides are far apart on job security and other work terms. Goodyear is the biggest tyre-maker in the US, and the USW represents 17,000 workers at 12 plants. 
 
The prior three-year labour agreement in the US rubber sector expired on 22 July.

US Steelworkers Ratify Contract with Michelin’s BF Goodrich Unit

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South Africa&rsquo;s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will conduct week-long commemorations all this week in tribute to a defining mining strike that occurred 60 years ago on 12 August. 
 
Hundreds of miners, then part of NUM&rsquo;s predecessor, the Black Mineworkers&rsquo; Union, struck on that day in 1946 at Witwatersran for a wage increase of 60 shillings and an end to single sex hostels. The strike was met by white police and the private security forces of the mining bosses, who violently put down the strike, maiming and killing several mineworkers in the process. 
 
&ldquo;It is important to recall the contributions made by these black mineworkers, their resilience and resistance under difficult times,&rdquo; stated NUM President Senzeni Zokwana, who also is President of the ICEM. Zokwana specifically mentioned the names of J.B. Marks, J.J. Majoro, and Thabo Mofutsanyane as courageous trade union leaders who made a stand on behalf of black mineworkers. 
 
&ldquo;The fact that the NUM is here today is due to the early efforts of these leaders and workers in organising mineworkers,&rdquo; Zokwana said. 
 
The commemorations started yesterday when African National Congress Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe addressed a NUM memorialisation event in Welkom, Free State. All of NUM&rsquo;s 11 regions will conduct activities this week that will culminate in a march on Saturday, 12 August, on the offices of the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg. On Wednesday, 9 August, a tribute honouring the 50th Anniversary of the Women&rsquo;s March to Union Buildings will be held. This will recognise the constraints still facing women who work in South Africa&rsquo;s mining industry, as well as honouring women who have lost their husbands in mining accidents.

60th Anniversary of South Africa’s Witwatersran Mining Strike Occurs This Week

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ICEM affiliate Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Namibia (MUN) stepped in to resolve a strike by workers at a diamond cutting and polishing factory in the southern African country recently.
The strike, by nearly a quarter of the 500-member workforce at a plant operated by Israeli-based Lev Leviev Diamonds, occurred when management again attempted to impose restrictive individual contracts on workers. The activist-leaders shut down the plant in Namibia&rsquo;s northern industrial zone on 27 July by effectively blocking entrances, and then demanded representation by the MUN. 
 
After listening to workers&rsquo; grievances, MUN General Secretary Joseph Hengari began negotiations with the company. The union convinced strikers to reopen the plant on 31 July, and got the company to drop threatened disciplinary actions against strike leaders. 
 
After two years of operation, the plant&rsquo;s workers still have not been granted permanent status, instead held to 12-month temporary contracts. This round of temporary work agreements were issued in July, with the company demanding a signed return by 31 July. The individual contracts disqualified workers from earning a basic salary unless they reached certain production goals. Commissions would be paid to workers only when work exceeded a daily target of eight stones per day, or 170 diamonds per month. 
 
Hengari said the contracts fail on all counts of basic workers&rsquo; rights. He said that no overtime is ever paid, and standard double pay for work performed on Sundays and holidays is ignored. The MUN is awaiting official word from the company that it recognises the union, since nearly all workers have designated MUN as bargaining representative. 
 
Lev Leviev Diamonds is the world&rsquo;s largest cutter and polisher of precious gems and a major source of rough stones to other cutters. The conglomerate also owns a gold mine in Kazakhstan, two diamond mines in Angola, and a multitude of other global business ventures, stretching from real estate, to petrol stations to Vash Telecanal, Israel&rsquo;s Russian television station. The company, operated by Lev Leviev, a 1971 immigrant to Israel from the former Soviet Union state of Uzbekistan, has a long history of opaque transactions, particularly in diamond and gem trading.

Namibian Diamond Polishers Seek Representation by Mineworkers’ Union

After nearly three weeks of relentless bombing and ground attacks by Israel in Lebanon, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) today added its voice to the calls for an immediate cease fire by both Israel and the militia of Hezbollah. 
 
The ICEM believes that Israel&rsquo;s actions have reached an unbearable level, particularly after the killings on 30 July of 56 civilians and children in Qana, southern Lebanon, by an Israeli air strike. 
 
&ldquo;The ICEM condemns the totally disproportionate use of military force by Israel in Lebanon,&rdquo; stated General Secretary Fred Higgs. &ldquo;Israel has effectively imposed collective punishment on all Lebanese people and destroyed the viability of the Lebanese state by destroying the country&rsquo;s infrastructure.&rdquo; 
 
Higgs stressed, &ldquo;There must be an internationally-imposed cease fire immediately so that a genuine and lasting peace for the region can commence.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM says the abusive way in which Israel is punishing the Lebanese people in hopes of destroying Hezbollah has created a humanitarian crisis that can only be addressed with the immediate cessation of lethal force and the acceptance by all parties to begin a process for a lasting peace. 
 
Across the Middle East Region as a whole, peace will only be achieved with resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, including the formation of a viable, independent Palestinian state. 
 
The ICEM is the Global Union Federation for the energy, chemicals, mining and other industrial sectors with affiliated trade union unions in both Lebanon and Palestine. The ICEM has 20 million members worldwide through its 403 affiliated trade unions in 122 countries. 
Click here for an <a href="/index.php?id=77&amp;doc=1898&amp;la=AR">Arab translation of this news release</a>.
Click here for an <a href="/index.php?id=24&amp;doc=2000&amp;la=AR">Arab translation of the Global Info article on an ICEM visit to Palestine</a>.

ICEM News Release: Call for an Immediate End to Israeli Aggression

Mid-July proved to another deadly period in the coal mines of China. In total, over 100 miners lost their lives in six separate and recorded tragedies occurring over in just over a week&rsquo;s time.
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&nbsp;The largest number of industrial deaths occurred in north China&rsquo;s Shanxi Province, at the Linjiazhuang Coal Mine in Lingshi county. A coal dust explosion on 15 July killed 57 miners, with only six miners managing to escape. Also on 15 July, a flash flood in the central Chinese province of Hunan killed 14 workers at the Shenjiawan Coal Mine. Only one of those workers was underground at the time, but the flooding also trapped rescue workers. 
 
Another mine flood in yet another province on 15 July took the lives of 18 miners. This occurred at the village-run Pianpoyuan Coal Mine in southwest China&rsquo;s Guizhou province, near the town of Anshun. On 16 July, an explosion at the Lilan Coal Mine in Junlian county, province of Sichuan province, claimed the lives of five miners. Thirty-four coalminers managed to escape. 
 
Eight miners were feared drowned inside a mine shaft that flooded on 10 July. This occurred in Shanxi province at the Dongchuan Coal Mine in Luliang City. Ten miners escaped, but rescue efforts were hampered by the necessity to pump some 2,000 cubic metres of water from mine shafts. On 8 July, a colliery in neighbouring Liulin county of Shanxi province, saw six miners trapped and presumed dead by flooding.

Spate of China Coal Mine Accidents Occur in Mid-July

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National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) affiliated workers demonstrated in South Africa on April 4, protesting against potential plans by DeBeers to close its Koffiefontein mine in the southern Free State.
Handing a memorandum to the management of the mine, the workers were given a promise by the employer that they would be answered. According to the NUM Chairperson, Joseph Botile, closing the mine would mean making Koffiefontein into a ghost town. DeBeers is virtually the only employer in the area, providing income for almost 600 people and their families. With all these jobs gone, it would become impossible for the NUM Workers to support their families.

South African NUM Workers Demonstrate at DeBeers Koffiefontein Mine

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On April 26, 20 years will have past since the largest nuclear disaster the world has ever seen. On that day in 1986, in what now is the country of Ukraine, a deadly explosion inside Chernobyl&rsquo;s reactor No. 4 led to the release of a radioactive cloud that spread across large parts of the Soviet Union. A number of countries in Europe were also affected, but to a much lesser extent. Today, 20 years later, it is still difficult to identify the exact damage of the radioactive fallout. 
In the immediate aftermath of the accident, the Soviet Union, with the help of the international community, poured in a lot of money to build the infrastructure needed to minimise the immediate adverse effects of the catastrophe, mainly through sealing off the damaged reactor. 
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As years went by, however, it became clear that, where funding was still available for infrastructural work, there was less and less money to take care of the power station workers and others who had gone into the affected area to do the actual work. A large number of these workers, all members of ICEM affiliate Atomprofspylka, the Ukrainian Nuclear Power Workers&rsquo; Union, gave their lives fighting the disaster, or subsequently died within months or years. For those who survived, the situation is bleak today with little or no job security and a largely indifferent government. 
The anniversary of Chernobyl comes two days before the international Workers Memorial Day on 28 April, when trade unions everywhere commemorate workers who have lost their lives in workplace accidents.

Chernobyl 20 Years after

To: All ICEM affiliates in Nepal 
 
Brussels, 12 April 2006 
 
Dear friends and colleagues, 
 
Ever since the illegitimate takeover of power by King Gyanendra in February 2005, the ICEM has been closely following the courageous efforts of its affiliated trade unions and others in Nepal. We are proud to have been able to support you and other trade unions as you have staged and taken part in the many demonstrations and protests actions against the king&rsquo;s autocratic rule. 
 
As we follow the unfolding events of the present time, we look in disbelief at how the so-called government in Nepal clings on to power using a wide range of brutal measures which seem to be installed specifically to hurt its own people. 
 
The ICEM strongly protests against the many arrests in Nepal that have taken place over the last few days, including the many arrests of both ordinary trade union members as well as trade union leaders. We also condemn the increasing violence used against the people of Nepal. We forcefully support the actions of the independent trade unions in Nepal as part of the broader struggle for the restoration of democracy. 
 
In name of the 20 million members of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions from 122 countries, I would like you to congratulate you on your actions so far and let you know that we are firmly with you and the Nepalese people in your united struggle against the royal oppression during this strike and beyond. 
 
In Solidarity! 
 
Fred Higgs 
General Secretary

ICEM letter of support for Nepalese affiliates

In the latest example of the appaling series of human and trade union rights violations in Colombia, the ICEM has learned of the murder of brother Daniel Cortez Cortez, a member of ICEM&rsquo;s Colombian affiliate Sintraelecol. 
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On Sunday April 2nd, brother Cortez was murdered in Puerto Parra, near the city of Barrancabermeja, the third largest city in Colombia, in a region known to be controlled by the paramilitaries. For the last 16 years, he has been working for the energy company Empresa Electrificadora de Santander, where he had been an active trade union member from the day he started. 
 
Daniel Cortez was assassinated at night on April 2nd. Attacked by a group of paramilitaries, he died instantly when he was shot in the face. He leaves behind a wife and four children and the ICEM offers its sincere&nbsp;condolences to his family, colleagues and friends. 
 
In a <a href="/index.php?id=26&amp;doc=1756&amp;la=EN">letter to the Colombian authorities</a>, the ICEM calls for an urgent, full and open investigation into the exact circumstances of this brutal assassination. Those responsible for the crime need to be brought to justice and convicted. 
 
The murder is, regrettably, not a stand alone case. Far more trade unionists are murdered in Colombia every year then anywhere else in the world. According to preliminary figures, over 70 murders on trade unionists were counted last year. In 2004, there were at least 99. 
 
&ldquo;This murder can not be just another addition to an already lengthy list. We need to keep realising that every time a trade unionist is killed in Colombia, a new tragedy unfolds. Each time, new families, other colleagues and different communities are faced with the loss of a family member, a colleague or a friend&rdquo; said Fred Higgs, General Secretary of the ICEM. &ldquo;It is imperative that we continue our demands on the Colombian government for effective protection for trade unionists in Colombia.&rdquo;

Member of Sintraelecol, ICEM Affiliate in Colombia, murdered

Meeting in Istanbul on 6 and 7 April, delegates at the ICEM&rsquo;s 3rd World Conference for the Rubber Industries ended two days of discussions and information exchange on Friday with the adoption of a plan for action. 
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Topics at the conference included current world-wide trends in the rubber industries, one of the most oligopolistic industrial sectors, and their effect on workers, as well as the need for multinational companies to guarantee respect for national and international workers&rsquo; rights. The conference was attended by over 100 representatives from 16 ICEM affiliated rubber sector trade unions from 14 countries. 
 
At the conference, two special resolutions were adopted. The first one dealt with the recently announced Goodyear plant closures in the UK and Poland, declaring international solidarity support towards the Goodyear workers in those countries. 
<img height="213" alt="" src="" width="390" />
The second resolution calls on Goodyear, Bridgestone and Pirelli to &ldquo;exert common sense and to bargain in good faith&rdquo; with Turkey&rsquo;s ICEM affiliate Lastik-Iş. These three companies take a very harsh approach to collective bargaining in Turkey. They are not only demanding concessions in working conditions, they have also consistently called on the Turkish government to ban strikes, while simultaneously threatening to leave the country. 
 
The conference adopted an action plan for the next four years, setting out broad guidelines for international trade union action at both national and international level. An important priority in the action plan is the need for continued and improved dialogue with multinational companies in the rubber sector, including through global framework agreements and global trade union networks. Special emphasis also goes to health and safety issues. 
Other priority areas are the difficulties related to the increased use of contract and agency labour and the fight for gender equality. 
 
Leo Gerard, International President of ICEM&rsquo;s US affiliate USW (United Steelworkers), was re-elected as Chair of the ICEM rubber section. 
 
Speaking at the conclusion of the conference, ICEM general secretary Fred Higgs said that &ldquo;The discussions, resolutions and adoption of a forward looking action plan by the conference demonstrates that unions around the world in the rubber sector are determined to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing industry on the basis of mutual support and solidarity&rdquo;. 
 
 

For the resolution on the Goodyear plant closings in the UK and Poland, <a href="/index.php?id=164&amp;doc=1754&amp;la=EN">click here</a>. 
 
For the resolution on collective bargaining in Turkey, <a href="/index.php?id=164&amp;doc=1750&amp;la=EN">click here</a>.&nbsp;
For more information on this conference, including background documents and presentations, <a href="/index.php?id=164&amp;la=EN">click here</a>.

ICEM’s World Rubber Conference Reacts to the Challenges of Globalisation

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