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The framework of a new industrial Global Union Federation (GUF) made a major step forward on 25 May in Geneva when a joint meeting of the IMF-ICEM-ITGLWF Executive Committees produced a clear mandate to forge ahead with integration of the three GUFs. 
The Executives met in joint session at the ILO and confirmed the commitment that global industrial workers in all sectors must integrate into a unified GUF for greater strength. Such a federation will number 55 million workers and it will unite textile workers with rubber, plastics, and autoworkers in the automotive sector; mineworkers&rsquo; with steel, smelting workers in basic metals; and chemical and electronic workers in high-tech and other industries. 
The commitment is to build a strong and responsive GUF that will unite and organise workers across entire supply chains. The new GUF will tackle tough social issues to reverse the global wealth imbalance including broader trade union rights in more countries, reducing the harmful trend in society of informal and precarious labour, and it will ensure there is just transition and decent work in green industries. 
It will also promote and build democratic and self-reliant trade unions across all industrial sectors. And through networks that communicate and respond, it will stand as protector of workers&rsquo; rights and social justice against errant multinationals throughout the world. 
The uniform consensus coming out of the 25 May meeting is paralleled by the work that IMF, ICEM, and ITGLWF already do jointly in Thailand, Turkey, Mexico, Canada, and several other countries. It is manifested in common policies put together inside forums between the three GUFs regarding climate change, economic disparity, and global finance flaws. 
The meeting of the joint Executives outlined new structures that will guide an integration process to a founding Congress. The secretariat will be headquartered in Geneva and the new GUF will have a President, three Vice Presidents, a General Secretary, and three Deputy General Secretaries. It will also have an Executive Committee with at least 30% women&rsquo;s representation. 
It was recognised that the new organisation must be built on solid financial footing and a common set of affiliation fees will be established during the initial four-year Congress period. Regional structures will exist that both implement the global policies of the GUF, as well as discuss and act on matters specific to the region. There was agreement on continuing strong sector work and enhance supply-chain coordination among workers and their unions. 
A joint working group of the three GUFs will continue its work to finalise statutes. Another working group will be set up to develop an action plan for the new organisation. Final approval to the process is expected to come at ITGLWF&rsquo;s Executive Committee in September, ICEM&rsquo;s Congress in late November, and IMF&rsquo;s Central Committee in early December. 
A contest for affiliates of the three GUFs to name the new organisation will be introduced in the coming weeks through a letter. Nordic trade unions offered to host dissolution Congresses and a founding Congress in Copenhagen. The proposed dates are 18-20 June 2012.

Creation of New Industrial GUF Takes Shape

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The ICEM is encouraging trade union activists from southern Africa nations, Brazil, and India to be one of 20 participants in the Global Labour University&rsquo;s (GLU) six-month &ldquo;Engage&rdquo; programme. A 1 November deadline for application approaches for a unique opportunity to engage in a diploma course that puts individuals on the front lines of current labour policies in the rapid globalisation of trade. 
 
The 20 trade unionists from those areas nations assuredly will strengthen their trade union capacities regarding analysis and then intervention on issues affecting labour struggles. &ldquo;We see this as a big advantage for affiliated trade unions to have people with this experience return home and be involved in strategic national issues,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re very enthused about this shortened curriculum and what it has to offer.&rdquo; 
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For details, including application and scholarship availability, visit the site <a href="http://www.global-labour-university.org/216.html">here</a>. Applications should be sent to <a href="mailto:engage@uni-kassel.de">engage@uni-kassel.de</a>. 
 
The curriculum will run from April to September 2011, and takes place at Kassel University in Germany and the Berlin School of Economics, as well as an internship at a global trade union federation. The programme was developed by the GLU, InWent Capacity Building International, a German labour-management development centre, the two German universities, and the global trade union federations. 
 
The six-month course includes 3.5 months of academic instruction that includes policy workshops with trade union representatives, and then a two-month internship on policy initiatives with a global trade union organisation. This is the second offering of the &ldquo;Engage&rdquo; programme. The first was a pilot project this year. 
 
The six-year-old GLU, part of the ILO, has trained trade unionists in economics and in social sciences from 49 countries in its short existence. The &ldquo;Engage&rdquo; programme gives national or local trade union staff the opportunity to pick up specific curriculums tailored to improve their skills at home.

Global Labour University’s ‘Engage’ Deadline Nears on 1 November

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The ICEM was saddened to hear of the death on 10 September of Mahjoub Ben Seddik, the Secretary-General of the Union Marocaine du Travail (UMT), who died in Paris at the age of 88. He was buried in the &ldquo;cimitiere des chouhadas,&rdquo; the martyrs cemetery in Casablanca, Morocco. 
 
In attendance at the funeral were the entire political class of Morocco, encompassing leaders of political parties, past and present government ministers, trade union centres, as well as numerous Moroccan intellectuals and wider civil society. All had gathered to pay homage to a great trade union leader who had been of massive importance in the trade union world, and the Moroccan struggle for independence. 
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Mahjoub Ben Seddik, the late Secretary-General of the Union Marocaine du Travail (UMT) 
In a message of condolences, Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary, echoed the words of UMT national official, Milourdi Moukharik, in stating: &ldquo;Moroccan workers, their trade union movement, as well as the Arab trade union world, and indeed the international trade union movement, have lost a great leader and fighter for trade union independence and struggle. 
 
&ldquo;He founded and continued to lead a vibrant and independent trade union structure firmly grounded in the workplace. The ICEM and the whole international trade union movement have lost a good friend and colleague. His passing really seems to be the end of an era.&rdquo; 
 
Mahjoub Ben Seddik spent his entire life defending the interests of the Moroccan workers. He never deviated from his conviction that the trade union movement should be independent of political parties, but at the same time was immensely political. He played a major role in the struggle for Moroccan independence and was imprisoned for two years in 1952 and again in 1954 before independence was achieved in 1956. 
 
He remained an active leader of UMT until his death and was a key supporter of wider international trade union, and the work of the ICEM in particular. UMT has been an active ICEM member for many years and has played an important role in the Global Union Federation&rsquo;s recent increased activities throughout the Middle East/North Africa Region (MENA), with Abdesalam Mansour being the MENA member of the ICEM Executive Committee.

ICEM Mourns Moroccan Trade Union Leader Mahjoub Ben Seddik

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Some 90 members of Unite the Union in the UK, employed at the Saxon Way, Corby, warehouse of Oxford University Press, will begin a second round of strike actions this week over the publishing house&rsquo;s inferior 2010 wage offer. Members of the GPM Section of Unite staged an initial 24-hour strike on 12-13 October, following a lawful strike ballot and formal rejection of a 2.5% increase. 
 
Last year, warehouse workers accepted a wage freeze in recognition of the financial crisis, only to learn after signing that managers, call centre workers, and admin staff of Oxford University Press had been awarded 2% increases. The 90 workers, who will soon be moved to new warehouse space at Prologis Park, Ketterling, are seeking a 2010 increase of 4.2% to offset last year&rsquo;s loss. 
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&ldquo;The company is doing well. It recorded an 8% increase in profit last year, on the back of a &pound;500 million turnover, so our members believe they are well within their rights to ask for 4.2%,&rdquo; Unite National Officer Steve Sibbald told the industry publication Printweek. 
 
Further industrial actions are scheduled for next week on 28 October and again on 3 November. Messages of support to workers can be sent to Unite Regional Officer Kathy Brooks <a href="mailto:Kathy.brooks@unitetheunion.org">here</a> who will relay all solidarity notes to striking warehouse workers.

Warehouse Workers of Oxford University Press to Strike Again

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For the first time, collective negotiations in Germany&rsquo;s paper industry will cover both the western and eastern regions of Europe&rsquo;s largest economy. Those talks between ICEM affiliate IGBCE and Deutschen Paperindustrie (VAP), the employers&rsquo; association, started 7 October in Dresden and cover 39,000 paperworkers. 
 
Led by IGBCE Chief Negotiator for the Paper Sector, Holger Nieden, the union insisted in the first round of talks that orders in the industry have picked up, productivity has vastly improved, recovery in the sector is apparent, thus wage increases are justified for both regular workers and apprentices. VAP contended in opening talks that the financial crisis is still in effect due to high raw material and high energy costs. 
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A second round of negotiations is scheduled for 12 November in Sulzbach, near Saarbr&uuml;cken, Germany. IGBCE and VAP are coming off a two-year social accord covering workers at some 220 paper mills and paper converting operations. 
 
Without specifying an exact pay gain, the union said it seeks a noticeable remuneration gain, improvements in general conditions of work, and common collective agreement time frames between enterprises in the east and in the west. The current contract in the west expired on 31 August, while in the east, the two-year agreement runs until 30 November. IGBCE is also seeking special criteria for union members in a new accord. 
 
After 20 years of gradual wage adjustments and improvements in working conditions for paperworkers in eastern Germany, it is the first time that a common agreement is being negotiated for both the western federal states and the eastern ones.

IGBCE Seeking Wage Gains as East, West Enjoined in German Paper Talks

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Negotiations between the United Steelworkers Local 7-669 and Honeywell Inc. failed 11-12 October to resolve a company-imposed lockout on 228 union members at a uranium conversion plant in the US. The failure to resolve the 17-week lockout in Metropolis, Illinois, means scab workers will continue to mix dangerous chemicals in a process that mills yellow-cake uranium into uranium hexafluoride (UF6), and then is sold to nuclear enrichment facilities. 
 
The talks last week were the third set of bi-lateral negotiations since the lockout began on 28 June. Progress was made on the first day on one of the major issues &ndash; health coverage and retiree medical insurance &ndash; but talks broke down on 12 October over retirement benefits and Honeywell&rsquo;s demand to create a two-tier pension scheme. Talks could re-start within the next few weeks. 
 
Other issues separating USW and Honeywell are the transnational&rsquo;s insistence on gaining broad contracting-out rights, a weakening of workers&rsquo; seniority rights, and hours of work. The company is offering a 3% wage increase, but its other demands are so detrimental to workers&rsquo; interests that the union has countered with a wage freeze and continuance of the current entitlement terms. 
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Metropolis, the fictional home of Superman, is now a US nuclear safety risk 
Honeywell, together with subcontracting agent the Shaw Group, has used US political leverage to gain certification from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), allowing the use of 200 replacement workers to perform dangerous tasks inside the nuclear supply chain. 
 
After initially signaling to USW Local 7-669 that it would not operate the plant during the lockout, Honeywell in July began staffing the conversion plant with scabs provided by the Shaw Group, and moved Honeywell supervisors from other areas to Metropolis. On 3 September, the NRC granted approval to Honeywell to re-start the final two steps of a four-step converting process. 
 
On 5 September, the town of Metropolis in southern Illinois along the Ohio River was shook by a loud boom that could be heard two kilometers away. Inside the plant, accumulated hydrogen reacted with fluorine gas during a venting process, causing the boom. NRC inspectors were on site at the time, and local police came to the scene. A NRC spokesman said the accident occurred in a non-regulated area of operation, meaning away from the handling of yellow cake uranium. Honeywell and the NRC jointly stated no damage to assets occurred and no one was injured. 
 
The Honeywell plant in Metropolis is the only such uranium conversion plant in the US and takes yellow cake uranium from Canada, Russia, and Australia and transforms it into UF6 through the four-stage process. That process includes ore preparation, through green salt preparation, to fluorination and distillation, before frozen and shipped to nuclear enrichment sites in US sites of Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Kentucky, as well as to plants in Russia and some Asian countries. 
 
A previous ICEM report on this US lockout is <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3977-Lockout-of-USW-represented-Uranium-Processing-Plant-in-US-Continues ">here</a>.

Talks Fail Between USW, Honeywell in US Uranium Lockout

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The ICEM Colombian affiliate Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera (USO) is being attacked by local management of Schlumberger Surenco, the world's largest oilfield services corporation with operations in approximately 80 countries. In an aggressive union busting campaign, the company is offering considerable benefits to those employees who cancel their union membership and to those non-unionised. 
 
Workers who do not choose to utilise their right to join the union are rewarded with increased salaries, increased holiday days, promotions, and general preferential treatment. Bullying and persecution occurs throughout the production sites in Colombia, especially in the Andina and Milenio plants in Bogot&aacute;. A common response from local managers when workers present a problem is &ldquo;disaffiliate from the union, and then we&rsquo;ll talk.&rdquo; 
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A collective agreement was reached between the workers and management in Colombia on 29 March, following months of negotiations. Now the company breaches the agreement regularly. Health and safety breached are common, with workers having to eat meals at their work posts, and in oil wells, to work continuously for months without time off, to work extra hours without overtime benefit. The company repeatedly insists on conducting disciplinary hearings at company headquarters in Bogot&aacute;, making it difficult for the correct USO representatives to travel long distances and attend, circumventing the proper industrial relations structure and process. 
 
As the ICEM has reported many times in the past, Schlumberger&rsquo;s union busting campaign is being conducted under the consent of the national government, now lead by President Juan Manuel Santos. 
 
The global oil services company has annual operating revenues of US$27.16 billion. 
 
USO asks supporters around the world to write to the company and government to demand that Schlumberger employees can freely exercise their right to organise and bargain collectively. Send those messages to the following addresses. 
 
SCHLUMBERGER &ndash; COLOMBIA 
Calle 100 No. 13-21 
Piso 4 
Edificio Megabanco 
Bogot&aacute; D.C 
 
Presidencia de la Rep&uacute;blica 
Dr. Juan Manuel Santos, 
Cra. 8 No..7-26, Palacio de Nari&ntilde;o, 
Santa fe de Bogot&aacute;. 
Fax: (+57 1) 566.20.71 
 
Vicepresidencia de la Rep&uacute;blica 
Dr. Angelino Garz&oacute;n 
Dr. Carlos Franco Programa Presidencial de Derechos Humanos y de Derecho Internacional Humanitario. Calle 7 No. 5-54 
FAX: (+571) 337.46.67 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:cefranco@presidencia.gov">cefranco@presidencia.gov</a> 
 
Programa Presidencial de Derechos Humanos y de Derecho Internacional Humanitario 
Dr. Fernando Ibarra 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:fibarra@presidencia.gov.co">fibarra@presidencia.gov.co</a> &nbsp; 
 
Comisi&oacute;n Interamericana de Derechos Humanos 
<a href="mailto:cidhoea@oas.org">cidhoea@oas.org</a> &nbsp; 
 
Representante Permanente de la OIT en Colombia 
Dr. Jos&eacute; Lu&iacute;s Daza 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:jmunoz@oit.org.pe">jmunoz@oit.org.pe</a> &nbsp; 
 
Procuradur&iacute;a General de la Naci&oacute;n 
Dr. Alejandro Ord&oacute;&ntilde;ez Maldonado 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:dcap@procuraduria.gov.co">dcap@procuraduria.gov.co</a>; 
<a href="mailto:anticorrupcion@presidencia.gov.co">anticorrupcion@presidencia.gov.co</a> &nbsp; 
 
Fiscal&iacute;a General de la Naci&oacute;n 
Dr. GUILLERMO MENDOZA DIAGO (E) 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:contacto@fiscalia.gov.co">contacto@fiscalia.gov.co</a>; 
<a href="mailto:denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co">denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co</a> &nbsp; 
 
Unidad de Derechos Humanos y de Derecho Internacional Humanitario 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:nayacero@fiscalia.gov.co">nayacero@fiscalia.gov.co</a> &nbsp; 
 
Defensor&iacute;a del Pueblo 
Dr. Volmar Antonio P&eacute;rez Ortiz 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:secretariaprivada@hotmail.com">secretariaprivada@hotmail.com</a> &nbsp; 
 
Central Unitaria de Trabajadores CUT 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:presidencia@cut.org.co">presidencia@cut.org.co</a> &nbsp; 
 
USO NACIONAL &ndash; Barrancabermeja 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:jdnb_uso@yahoo.com">jdnb_uso@yahoo.com</a>

Union Busting at Oilfields Services Provider Schlumberger in Colombia

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The ICEM affiliated Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF) reports that the provincial government of Balochistan has passed new labour legislation which does not fulfil its requirements to protect workers in the region. 
 
Up until 30 April 2010 the Industrial Relations Act of 2008 (IRA-2008) governed labour relations throughout Pakistan. However on 30 April that legislation was suspended after its 18th amendment. The provinces of Pakistan were then empowered to pass their own laws. 
 
The Balochistan Industrial Relations Ordinance 2010 was announced after no consultation with employees, where consensus is required from all stakeholders, employers, employees, and government. 
<img src="" width="120" height="179" alt="" />
Secretary General of the PCMLF, Mr. Sultan Muhammad Khan
As trade unionists were angered by the local government&rsquo;s actions, a press conference was conducted, 8 October, in Quetta, Northern Pakistan, by the head of the All Pakistan Labour Federation (APLF) and the Secretary General of the PCMLF, Mr. Sultan Muhammad Khan. 
 
Mr. Muhammad Khan issued the following demands to local government: 
&bull; Do not pass new provincial labour legislation without consensus of the stakeholders &ndash; Employers, Employees, Government 
&bull; Improve the law and order situation in the province 
&bull; Create new Industrial Zones in the province to reduce unemployment 
&bull; Register all mine workers with the Welfare authorities 
&bull; All mine owners must be forced to pay all government welfare contributions 
&bull; Improve health and safety conditions at work in the province

Troubling Pakistan Labour Legislation Passed

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The leadership of the Coal Industry Workers&rsquo; Union of Ukraine (PRUPU) was strongly heard at a meeting of the Coal Ministry Board in Kiev on 15 October. 
 
The Coal Ministry&rsquo;s Board meeting was held under the instruction of Ukraine&rsquo;s First Vice-Premier Andrei Klyuev, who said at a Cabinet meeting on 16 September that the challenges facing the coal industry must be addressed. The Vice-Premier&rsquo;s instruction resulted from a report delivered by Victor Turmanov, PRUPU President, who vividly highlighted the most burning of the problems that besiege the industry&rsquo;s workers and mine sites today. 
 
There was no &ldquo;quiet talk&rdquo; at the 15 October meeting but rather strong words on the industry&rsquo;s problems among the close circle of the Ministry officials and the heads of state-owned enterprises attending the meeting. Klyuev&rsquo;s instruction stipulated that the Ministry Board meeting shall involve representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour, State Assets Fund, Ministry of Industrial Policy, Ministry of Transport, Ministry for Fuel and Energy, and the leaders of the Ukrainian coal miners&rsquo; union. 
<img alt="" src="" width="115" height="115" />
Victor Turmanov, PRUPU President
Raising wages was one of the main issues that the union raised at the meeting. In line with the effective law, the minimal wage in Ukraine has been raised to 907 hryvnas from 1 October, yet the actual wages at the operating coal mining sites are calculated using the old basic rates and salaries based on the last year&rsquo;s figure of 744 hryvnas. 
 
And the situation is even worse for the III-d category mines, mine rescue teams, coal-mine builders, and workers at coal processing plants. For workers in the sub-sectors of the coal mining industry, the basic rate of 744 hryvnas is still but a dream. 
 
In this regard, Turmanov pointed out that &ldquo;our priority task is to ensure that the wages go up for industry workers. This was one of the key issues at the Ministry Board meeting.&rdquo; 
 
Unfortunately, bringing wages up to the level prescribed by the law is far from being the only problem in the coal mining industry. 
 
In view of the 15 October Ministry Board meeting, leaders of all territorial organizations of the union met on 28 September to prepare a well-defined list of priority issues facing the industry&rsquo;s sites and workforces to be brought to the attention of the enlarged Ministry Board. 
 
Issues such as the lack of funds for the development of mining facilities or provisions for fuel for homes of coal miners also generated points of discussion. Sharp criticisms were voiced with regard to the Ministry&rsquo;s efforts reforming the regional (oblast) management structure of coal mining sites and other actions. 
 
Union President Victor Turmanov said that if the Ministry of Coal is unable to reform the industry today, the government &ndash; and the President &ndash; must be told so in so many words. If reforms contradict the interests of workers and prove harmful to the enterprises, then we should be better off without them, leaving the industry governance system in its present form. The union shall brook no mindless attempts at reorganization, no reforms for reform sake! 
 
View a video report from the 28 September territorial meeting of union leaders <a href="http://www.prupu.org/video/">here</a>. The union&rsquo;s web site is <a href="http://www.prupu.org">here</a>.&nbsp;

Ukrainian Miners’ Union Get Heard at Coal Ministry Board

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While the world&rsquo;s euphoria was centered on the successful rescue of 33 Chilean miners, 26 Chinese miners were killed and another 11 remain missing today following a gas rush that suffocated miners just metres beneath the surface through a massive coal dust cloud. The accident happened on 16 October at the Henan mine of Pingyu Coal and Electric Co. in Yuzhou, Henan province. 
 
The tragedy occurred when a hole was being drilled to release pressure caused by a methane gas build-up. The miners were buried when an estimated 173,000 cubic metres of gas rushed out, resulting in miners&rsquo; being buried in a coal dust concentration totaling 2,500 tonnes. 
<img alt="" src="" width="180" height="132" />
Rescue attempts were still ongoing early today for the missing 11, but hopes that they were alive were slim. They were only 50 metres beneath the surface. Some 239 miners did escape. 
 
The gas level inside the mine was detected at 40% just prior to the accident, far above normal levels that average one percent. 
 
Pingyu Coal and Electric Co. is owned by a consortium of four enterprises, including the China Power Investment Corp. and Zhong Ping Energy Chemical Group. In 2008, 23 miners perished in the same colliery from a methane gas explosion. 
 
On 15 October, a day before the Chinese tragedy and less than 30 hours after the last of the 33 Chilean miners were pulled to the surface, three of four miners died following a tunnel collapse inside the Casa Negra gold and silver mine of Minesadco in El Oro province, Ecuador. The mine employs 100 workers and the accident happened when workers were digging a short distance from where the collapse occurred. Rescue efforts continued today to local the fourth miner, believed either trapped deeper inside the mine or killed by the rock collapse.

37 Chinese Coal Miners Feared Dead in Henan Province Coal Dust Tragedy

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