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Five subcontractors at a Taiyo Oil Co. refinery in Imabari, Japan were burned to death 17 January inside a 100,000 kiloliter oil storage tank. An explosion and fire occurred when two contractors were preparing the tank for cleaning.
Investigators are looking at safety management practices of the two contractors, Taiyo Techno Service and Fukasaki-Gumi, and suspicion of negligence on their part.
The Taiyo Oil Workers&rsquo; Union, affiliated with JEC Rengo, is monitoring in the investigation. The union represents refinery workers at the 120,000 barrel-per-day Taiyo refinery, but not contract workers. Two other contract workers were injured in the blast and subsequent fire.

Contract Workers Killed at Japanese Oil Refinery

French affiliate FCE-CFDT has condemned Swiss chemicals and pharmaceutical company Novartis for installing a special telephone line in plants so workers can whistle-blow on one another.
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The union said such a practice abuses the company&rsquo;s own code of conduct, and creates a sour climate for employee morale. The central committee of workers for Novartis&rsquo;s French enterprises, along with the FCE-CFDT and CGT-FO, have taken legal action in the city of Nanterre.
In spite of laws and regulations preventing such practices, certain multinationals, including Novartis, do no hesitate to transgress these laws and regulations in order to arrive at methods that are perceived to be accountability measures, stated the FCE-CFDT.

French Affiliate Protests Novartis’ Whistle-Blowing Tactics

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CEP members at a Stora Enso paper mill in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, will vote tomorrow and Wednesday, 24 and 25 January, on a company contract proposal. Rejection likely will mean 660 members of CEP Local 972 will face a lockout effective 26 January. 
Following eight days of non-stop bargaining that ended late on 18 January, Local 972 members met with union leaders on 21 January to review proposed terms, which includes job losses, contracting out provisions and changes in seniority procedures.
Stora Enso issued the mandatory 48-hour lockout notice on 30 December, and has had its only Canadian pulp and paper mill closed since 23 December, with nearly all workers on layoff status

Canadian Stora Enso Workers to Vote on Contract

The Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada on 16 January conducted 14 separate demonstrations across the North American country to protest the jobs crisis in the forest industries sector. Last week&rsquo;s actions came seven days before Canadians go to the polls in national elections today.
The protests were aimed at demanding government aid for stricken communities, as well as government subsidies tied to maintaining and creating jobs in forest products sectors.
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CEP President Brian Payne
&ldquo;These jobs and communities are worth fighting for, and it&rsquo;s about time the politicians joined our fight,&rdquo; stated CEP President Brian Payne. Some 7,600 jobs have been lost due to shutdowns and cutbacks in the past year in Canada, and 40,000 over the past five years.

Canadian CEP Union Calls for National Action Over Forest Sector Jobs

Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen of Finland, ICEM&rsquo;s Paper Sector Chairman, has questioned whether the current paper employers&rsquo; frenzy to contract out jobs is in the best interests of the companies&rsquo; own future financial health.
Because of the agreement that ended last year&rsquo;s bitter lockout in the Finnish paper sector, mill-level negotiations on outsourcing are underway at some 30 enterprises, work capably done now by Paperiliitto members. Ahonen told the Finnish press that employers would be wise to consider that such practices might backfire on them in the future.
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Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen
If mill-level talks on sub-contracting do not reach mutual accord, the matter goes before a national arbitration panel that includes Paperiliitto, the employers&rsquo; federation, and an impartial chairman. All final decisions by such a panel must be unanimous.

Paperiliitto President Predicts Finnish Outsourcing Will Backfire

ICEM Serbia-Montenegro affiliate, EPS Trade Union, began the second phase of strike actions at three enterprises of the state-run electric power generation and distribution services on 20 January.
Distribution workers are now striking two hours daily, while thermal plant production has been decreased by 10%. In addition, maintenance workers at hydro plants and transmission network workers have reduced services. The strike actions, which began 10 January, are over back wages owed to power workers and miners for 2004 and 2005 and for a fair wage increase in 2006. 

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EPS Trade Union President 
Miroslav Veličković
The Serbian Mining and Energy Ministry reneged on an offer that had ended one-hour, daily strikes. Originally, the two sides agreed that workers would be paid 70% of accrued back-wages now, and the remainder later. Last week, the government amended that offer to pay workers only 9% on a monthly basis, and structure that as a loan.

Serbian Affiliate Commences Phase Two of Utility Strike Actions

ICEM affiliate IGBCE has proposed mediation conducted by well-respected German politicians now that talks broke off between the union and Continental Tyre. Negotiations failed on 11 January in efforts to prevent 320 job cuts by year end at the St&ouml;cken plant in Hannover, as announced by the company in November. 
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IGBCE was outraged by press remarks made by Continental CEO Manfred Wennemer at the outset of those talks in which he predicted German workers in the future will work 42.5 hours a week, and have two weeks less of vacation. Wennemer also remarked that the world could not care less about Conti&rsquo;s broken agreement made with IGBCE last spring in which the company gained flexible work rules and a 40-hour week in exchange for a pledge of no job cuts.
IGBCE board member Werner Bischoff, vice president of Conti&rsquo;s Supervisory Board, said Wennemer &ldquo;poured oil on to the fire&rdquo; with his comments, and called on the CEO to apologise. On 13 January, the company&rsquo;s European Works Council members pledged to interpret with scrupulous accuracy the council&rsquo;s constitution and legal rules, intending to make Conti&rsquo;s normal business practices impossible. The central works council in Germany also took action by refusing to allow overtime work and opening health and safety inspections to civil authorities. 
A mass demonstration protesting the company&rsquo;s broken promise takes place today, 23 January, in Hannover, with workers&rsquo; meetings also occurring today at all Continental plants to discuss Wennemer&rsquo;s remarks and the St&ouml;cken situation

Continental Tyre: Wennemer’s Remarks Outrage IGBCE

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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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