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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Whether or not the South African National Assembly passes legislation to ban labour brokers is a question likely to be answered early in 2010. But there is little doubt that the matter has fast become the hot-button employment issue in the country, judging from the current intensity of the debate. 
 
Following two days of raucous public hearings in Cape Town by the Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on Labour in late August that firmly pitted political parties against one another, the debate whether to pass a ban or to impose tighter regulations on labour broking moved to four provinces in early October where parliamentary regional hearings were held. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="146" height="66"/>
And in between, the Congress of South African Unions (COSATU) weighed in strongly in favour of a ban at its Tenth National Congress and immediately launched a national campaign to ban the 25-billion-rand business in coordination with global labour’s World Day for Decent Work (WDDW) on 7 October. 
 
In COSATU’s congress declaration, the federation states, “… as part of the struggle for decent employment, we call for the elimination of the practice of labour broking.” At a press conference following the 21-24 September congress, General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said labour brokers often take up to 20% of a worker’s wages in fees. 
 
Three weeks earlier, at the Assembly’s Portfolio Committee hearings, Vavi called the system a “social ill,” likening it to “HIV and AIDS or crime and corruption. It’s an arrangement made to take advantage of the weak and most vulnerable in a society.” 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthAfricaCOSATU2.jpg" width="102" height="111"/>
One of COSATU’s WDDW activities occurred on 6 October where 400 members of the affiliated Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) rallied in front of a postal centre in Ormonde. There, some 80% of the total workers are supplied by labour brokers. A CWU representative said eight labour brokers are used and what’s worse, he added, is that some of the postal managers are part-owners of the labour-broking agencies. 
 
One such worker abused by the system and involved in the protest said he earns a monthly salary one-quarter of that of a permanent employee in the postal centre, while another said working in precarious employment is no better than being unemployed. “They use us like condoms. One mistake, you are out and they get another one in your place anyway.” 
 
The ICEM affiliate, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), called on parliamentarians of the African National Congress (ANC) to use its majority to pass a law banning labour brokers. NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim said under the latter-day apartheid employment system, the focus of employers is on labour agencies, not workers. “In a society with high levels of inequalities, it is a crisis to allow this system to flourish,” he said. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthafricaNumsa100.jpg" width="100" height="102"/>
The political lines have been drawn in the debate. While most ANC legislators favour a ban, the business-friendly Democratic Alliance (DA) is on the defensive and merely calling for regulating labour broking. The fledging Congress of the People (COPE), with little political power following spin-off from the ANC, has been relatively silent on the issue, but is believed to favour tighter regulation rather than an outright ban. 
 
The business lobby says 500,000 people in South African are employed through labour brokers, but it is believed the real number could be triple that. The lobby does admit that of 6,000 labour brokers in the country, only 3,000 of them are properly registered. 
 
In neighbouring Namibia, labour brokers were banned in 2008. But the industry and business lobby has now challenged that law on constitutional grounds, something South African business interests would likely do as well if a ban is passed. 
 
On 27 August, the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI), together with its South African affiliate, the Building and Construction Allied Workers’ Union, held a forum in Johannesburg entitled “Multi-Sectoral Conference on Decent Work Towards and Beyond 2010,” aimed primarily at work issues in preparation for South Africa hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthafricaNUM.gif" width="100" height="103"/>
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Construction Coordinator Isaac Ntshangase pointed out that 32% of the country’s building and construction industry is carried out using informal workers. The conference passed a resolution calling for a ban on labour brokers and condemned the sub-standard wages and work conditions common in subcontracting arrangements. 
 
Whether or not section 198 of South Africa’s Labour Relations Act of 1995 gets amended to ban labour brokers totally, or if a compromise is struck placing tighter regulations on the practice, is an open question right now. But there is little question that some form of legislative action will result, which will be good news to the global union forces that are now marshalling efforts to rollback non-sustaining work through labour-hire agencies and indirect employment.

Issue to Ban ‘Labour Brokers’ in South Africa Coming to a Head

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The transition to a low-carbon economy must guarantee employment and result in the development of new, decent jobs, say participants at global industrial unions’ meeting on climate change. That was the message coming from 14-15 October multi-trade union meetings in Bad Orb, Germany.
The meetings were conducted under the auspices of the ICEM, the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), the European Metalworkers' Federation, and the European Mine, Chemical, and Energy Workers’ Federation (EMCEF) in a forum "Cutting Emissions, Transforming Jobs." 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910.bad.orb.jpg" width="370" height="110"/>
The goal of the meeting was to discuss how industrial workers might present a common position at the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Copenhagen Denmark. The UNFCCC COP-15 conference, as it is called, is expected to propose a new set of agreements on greenhouse gas emissions targets to renew or replace those contained within the Kyoto Accord. 
 
Speaking at the meeting, IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina said, “Our industrial sectors are frequently seen as contributors to the current environmental crisis. Yet it is within these very industries that solutions already exist or are being developed. We want to reduce emissions, while at the same time increasing employment and protecting the environment.” 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910.bad.orb.2.jpg" width="325" height="183"/>
The industrial workers’ unions prepared a background discussion document taking into account work that had already been done, such as ICEM's recently-adopted policy on Sustainability. The meeting was structured around five panel discussions: environmental protection, sustainable development, sectoral concerns, sustainable job creation, and just transition. 
 
The lively discussion covered a vast territory, some of the points made include: 
- the environmental crisis is as much a failure of global capitalism as the recent and ongoing economic crisis 
- good jobs and a clean environment go hand in hand, we will have both; or we will have neither 
- developing countries must have their chance to develop. However, their development need not follow the same harmful paths as it did in developed countries that caused the environmental crisis in the first place. International institutions for capital and finance, resurgent protectionism, and restrictions on technology transfer, can create a new era of colonialism if we do not prevent it 
- trade unions must hold governments and employers to account, particularly regarding the social dimension of sustainability 
 
The delegates from all four organizations welcomed the opportunity to discuss the social and economic consequences of trying to solve the present environmental crisis. Overall, there was a consensus that industrial sector unions need to make our voices heard in Copenhagen, and particularly to be the champions of the social dimension of sustainable development. While there are certainly concerns within specific industries and regions, and therefore a need for strong Just Transition programs, there are also many opportunities for sustainable job creation. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/IMF100.jpg" width="100" height="97"/> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/EMCEF.gif" width="146" height="46"/> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/EMF.png" width="105" height="94"/>
 
The ICEM, IMF, EMF and EMCEF will be reviewing the discussion document and comments received over the next couple of weeks. Following this review, we will finalize the materials we will bring to COP-15 in Copenhagen to make our points with the country representatives negotiating the new agreement. 
 
Following the meeting, Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary said, “For industrial workers and their unions an important question for changing to a low-carbon economy is who pays for it and who benefits from the transition. We only have one planet and we all have an interest in protecting our future.” 
All material from the meeting is available on the IMF website, <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=21012&l=2">here</a>.
Additional information about climate change and the position of industrial workers can be found on the following web links: 
 
<a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/climatechange">www.imfmetal.org/climatechange</a>
<a href="/en/97-Sustainable-Development-Health-and-Safety" type="internal">/en/97-Sustainable-Development-Health-and-Safety</a>
<a href="http://www.industrialpolicy.eu/COP15">http://www.industrialpolicy.eu/COP15</a>

Cut Emissions, Transform Jobs

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A special feature at the IGBCE Congress in Hannover, Germany, occurred on closing day, 16 October. It was a round-table forum on Global Networks. The panel was moderated by Constantin Grund of the Freidrich Ebert Foundation, and included ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana. 
 
It also included Fabio Lins from ICEM Brazilian affiliate CNQ/CUT, who addressed the highly successful Latin American network of workers within the German chemical company BASF; Robert Oswald, chairman of the European Works Council of BASF; and Ralf Blauth, Human Resources director of Evonik, now a German chemicals firm that evolved from another company, RAG, that had been signatory to a Global Framework Agreement with the ICEM. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910.IGBCE.3.jpg" width="300" height="225"/>
Fabio Lins, Senzeni Zokwana, Constantin Grund, Robert Oswald, Ralf Blauth
Zokwana spelled out the ICEM’s philosophy behind Global Agreements, as well as the distinct features of ICEM workers’ networks within single multinational companies, specifically related to the regional and global level. 
 
“These networks are the direct result of several years of contact between workers of the same company,” he said. “We have found that the regional networks are working the best, partly because of language and work similarities, but also because company managers have joined with these taking on a high degree of dialogue and actual negotiations.” 
 
Lins added that the best example of this might be BASF in Latin America, which has now completed its tenth year. “We have succeeded in convincing the BASF managers in both Europe and Latin America to play a hands-on role in this network,” said Lins. “That has enhanced our work, brought better safety standards to all worksites, and addressed such issues as subcontracting directly with management.” 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/BASFICEMLatAmNetwork.jpg" width="300" height="104"/>
Oswald added that the BASF Asia-Pacific Network is moving forward, with the introduction of methods and common values brought forward from both Europe and Latin America. “I must add that Supervisory Board members and workers’ representatives on BASF’s European Works Council have gained valuable knowledge and benefited greatly from the experiences that have been shared in both regions,” said Oswald. 
 
Blauth addressed the question of a merged company – RAG and Degussa forming Evonik – coming forward now to re-negotiate a Global Agreement. He said it is still too early in the process to predict an outcome. “We are pragmatic and will place great emphasis on the practicability of reaching such an agreement. The communication process is important in and of itself, and this process inevitably leads to improved company practices. 
 
Warda concluded the session by stating both Global Framework Agreements and multinational workers’ networks are invaluable instruments to improve dialogue between labour and management, as well as setting forth best practices for trade unions in cross-border workplaces to adopt and implement so work standards can become harmonized.

IGBCE Congress Features Panel on Global Workers’ Network on Closing Day

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Tens of thousands of Nigerian citizens took to the streets in the federal capital territory of Abuja on 29 October in a visible display at protest over the government’s plan to deregulate the downstream oil sector. The manifestation was led by the nation’s two national labour centres, the blue-collar Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the white-collar Trades Union Congress (TUC). 
 
Both ICEM trade union affiliates in the energy sector, NUPENG and PENGASSAN, were forefront in the manifestation, turning out thousands of members. The government’s plan to deregulate also would end fuel subsidies to the nation’s citizenry, an insensitive move that would – the labour federations claim – immediately lift fuel costs from 65 naira per litre (US$.43) to 95 naira (US$.63). 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0911.Nigeria.Rally.jpg" width="160" height="239"/>
Three Arms Monument at the National Assembly
Such an increase on heating, cooking, and transport fuel costs would drive millions of people in Africa’s most populous country deeper into poverty. 
 
Last Thursday’s protest culminated at the Three Arms Zone in front of the National Assembly, where union and civil society leaders delivered a letter intended for President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. It called on the government to conduct a citizens’ referendum on the question of deregulation. 
 
The letter was jointly signed by NLC President Abdulwahed Omar, TUC President Peter Esele, and Dr. Dipo Hasfhina, co-chairman of the Labour and Civil Society Coalition. The manifestation started at Berger Junction in Abuja and marched passed several key buildings, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) Towers, the Court of Appeals, and the Nigerian Television Authority, locations where the march halted for rallying speeches. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0911.Nigeria.Rally.2.jpg" width="320" height="213"/>
Both NUPENG and PENGASSAN believe that deregulation can only occur when there is increased local refining capacity from Nigeria’s five oil refineries. NUPENG President Peter Akpatason said deregulating the downstream sector would allow shadowy marketers to limit supplies, thus boosting prices and their profits, “spelling misery to the teeming poor of the country.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/People/NupengAkpatason.jpg" width="120" height="90"/>
NUPENG President Peter Akpatason
Withdrawing fuel subsidies, he added, when the domestic market is dependent on 80% imported supplies is a recipe for civil strife. The country’s refineries have a combined stated capacity of 445,000 barrels-per-day, but have never operated at that due to neglect, negligible NNPC and government capitalisation, and lack of reliable feedstock supplies. Even if run at full optimisation, the refineries would produce just barely half of the 32 million litres of petrol, kerosene, and other fuel products demanded daily. 
 
PENGASSAN President Babatunde Ogun also expressed skepticism at the current government process toward deregulation. “We vehemently reject import-driven deregulation. We need the free and uninterrupted flow of petroleum products across the country,” he said, adding that means the government must focus on developing more domestic refining capacity and creating jobs for Nigerians. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0805BanatundeOgunPengPres1.jpg" width="140" height="210"/>
PENGASSAN President Babatunde Ogun
A major complaint by labour and civil service leaders is the arrogance of Rilwanu Lukman, Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources, who has concluded publicly that deregulation and the end of price subsidies is now irreversible. His neo-liberal thinking, some believe, is tied to his own relationships with marketers. 
 
The mass number of Nigerians who assembled last week in Abuja resent the government’s fast-track effort to deregulate oil supplies. As NLC President Abdulwahed Omar said at one rally stop, “Nigeria belongs to all of us and if the government is for the people, then the voice of the people must count. If they think that deregulation is a popular policy, let them subject it to a referendum and let Nigerians decide.” 
 
Although the government has been silent on the exact date that liberalisation would occur, indicators such as vessel arrivals and ramping up supply access signal that perhaps it will be soon. But following last week’s mass mobilization, the government may very well have backed off immediate deregulation and an end to subsidies until more public discourse is heard.

Nigerian Labour, Citizenry Protest to Fuel Oil Deregulation

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An 18-month contract dispute between the ICEM North American affiliate, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB), and Lafarge at a cement manufacturing plant in the US state of Missouri was finally resolved on 22 October. 
 
A tentative agreement was reached at the Sugar Creek, Missouri, plant between IBB Lodge D-27 and American managers of the French- based company that will see retirees receive the same medical benefits that active workers get, and will push back a different retiree health-benefit scheme for any new employee hired after 1 January 2012. 
 
IBB Vice President Warren Fairly reported that the new agreement, once ratified by the 55 Lodge D-27 members, will run until 1 January 2012. A prior agreement expired on 30 April 2008. 

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The ICEM and the Building and Woodworkers’ International (BWI), the two Global Union Federations that are signatory to a Global Framework Agreement with Lafarge, brought North American management’s unjust social cuts before senior Lafarge managers in Paris in September and October 2008. 
 
Lafarge had sought to exclude entirely new hires from any future retiree medical plan, and wanted existing workers to enter into a separate, inferior health-care plan upon retirement. 
 
The ICEM congratulates the IBB for its bargaining table endurance to finally get Lafarge to move away from its concessionary 2008 contract agenda. The Sugar Creek cement plant underwent a major modernisation in 2002, and is currently in a ten-week partial shutdown that is expected to last until 11 January 2010 due to the economic downturn in the construction sector. 
 
Some 35 to 40 IBB members are on temporary furloughs, but the union has negotiated retention of their benefits. Teamsters Local 541 represents about ten truck drivers at the Sugar Creek plant as well.

US Boilermakers US Succeed in Moving Lafarge Off Contract Concessions

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Following the ICEM’s Executive Committee Meetings late in June in Geneva, and the two-day International Nuclear Workers’ Union Network (INWUN) conference, the ICEM held a wider Electric Power Workers’ Conference on 27 June. 
 
Under the chairmanship of Lars Myhre, ICEM Energy Industries Section Chairman, the conference saw participation of trade unions involved in the production and distribution of electric power, regardless of the method of generation used. 
 
A number of presently unaffiliated trade unions from the North America electric industry had been invited and a union representing power workers of British Colombia, Canada, Local 38 of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees’ Union, was in attendance. 
 
After an opening session where speeches of welcome preceded a detailed presentation of the global industry and recent ICEM work, made by Energy Officer Jim Catterson, a presentation on ICEM’s Sustainable Development policy was made by Health, Safety, Sustainability Officer Brian Kohler. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0907.electricity.jpg" width="343" height="142" alt=""/>
Michael Langford, Lars Mhyre, Manfred Warda
The conference focused on key priorities of ICEM including Global Framework Agreements, networks, and campaigns. On global agreements, an overview by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda was followed by a detailed presentation on the EDF agreement by Marc Ferron of French affiliate FCE-CFDT. 
 
Ferron is the secretary of the coordinating committee established within the EDF agreement, and his presentation generated much interest and discussion. A second session focused on network building with presentations on the previous two days of INWUN meetings, done by INWUN Chairman David Shier of the Canadian Power Workers’ Union, and on the Asia-Pacific Electric Power Workers’ Network, a presentation made by a colleague from Japan. 
 
A third focus of the conference was on campaigning and following an overview of recent ICEM campaigns in the industry by ICEM Information and Campaigns Officer Dick Blin, the meeting heard a report of the ongoing campaign for a first collective agreement at Covanta in the US state of Massachusetts by Michael Langford, President of the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA). This presentation focussed on the international aspects of the struggle for justice, and also generated considerable interest and discussion. 
 
The electric conference then drew together the discussions under a general theme of building and strengthening trade unions throughout the industry. Iraq was clearly focused on as an immediate priority following a moving presentation of the situation there by Hashmeyia Saadawi, the President of ICEM-affiliated General Union of Electricity Workers and Technicians (GFIW) and a member of the ICEM Executive. She gave a detailed report on the daily dangers involved in trade union work in Iraq and her presentation centered on the lack of regular electric power supply service there, and on safety and health problems, which has led to an appalling rate of accidents and deaths record in the industry. 
 
Participants also congratulated Hashmeyia Saadawi on her recent award of the prestigious Febe Elisabeth Velasquez Trade Union Award presented by FNV, a Dutch national labour centre, which is given to a trade union leader who has worked under difficult circumstances, taken enormous personal risks, but has defended trade union rights in countries where such rights are routinely violated. 
 
The conference marked the first time ICEM has held a meeting devoted purely to Electric Power, and all participants considered it a very worthwhile exercise in building and organising solidarity. Delegates resolved to build a sector-wide communication network to build solidarity to conflicts and to communicate good practice and union success stories quickly and easily.

ICEM Hold First Electric Power Conference

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With 95% and 85% strike votes over the weekend, 3,500 Canadian miners of two United Steelworkers (USW) branch unions voted to take joint strike action beginning early today against Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (Vale-Inco). 
 
The strike started in northern Ontario province and at a southern Ontario refinery and port. Production from Ontario accounts for 10% of the world’s nickel supply, and the Vale-Inco assets in Ontario are considered among the world’s richest nickel and plating resources in the world. 
 
The strike came after the USW, in late May, gave the Brazilian-based company a ten-week extension to complete talks. Management continued pressing for a concession-ridden collective agreement in that period, and Canadian miners spoke with one voice and multiple strike lines in total response to the company’s social cuts. 
 
Picket lines went up at midnight on 13 July at mines, a smelter, and processing plants in the copper-nickel belt surrounding Sudbury, Ontario, and at Port Colborne, some 400 kilometres south on Lake Erie. USW represents some 3,300 miners in northern Ontario, while USW Local 6200 represents 200 workers at Port Colborne. A strike website has been created, and is <a href="http://www.fairdealnow.ca">here</a>. 
 
“We have spoken to all the unions that work in the global operations of Vale and we have their unanimous support as well,” said USW President Leo Gerard, himself a native of Sudbury and a member of Local 6500. 

<img height="140" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0710USWLeoGerard120.jpg" width="120"/>
Leo Gerard
“This is a global fight and we are a global union and we will use our global power to fight these concessions.” 
 
Vale-Inco’s concessionary proposals are many, including a new and reduced pension scheme for new hires, reductions to production bonuses, loss of value in cost-of-living increases, and amendments to contracting-out provisions, which will decrease job security for Vale-Inco workers. 
 
The company is attempting to supplant a defined benefit pension plan with a defined contribution plan for new hires. Other concessions proposed to the pension benefit include removal of the indexing provision and deep cuts to the disability pension. Regarding outsourcing, Vale-Inco seeks to give outside contractors’ use of the company’s moving equipment, a serious threat in mining to full-time, permanent jobs. 

<img height="115" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Canada.png" width="250"/>
In a solidarity letter to nickel miners and smelting and port workers of USW Locals 6500 and 6200 in Canada, the ICEM wrote, “ … the fact that young workers and old workers at Inco are standing tall and standing together to preserve future incomes” is highly commendable. 
 
“We must not let corporate greed and a rush to the bottom stop us from choosing the correct path out of financial malaise,” said the ICEM letter. “In this fight, in a strategic nickel-processing area of the world, union members of Locals 6500 and 6200 have chosen the correct road.” 
 
Vale is the world’s second biggest mining company. It bought Canadian-based Inco late in 2006. Also in Canada, at Vale-Inco NL, members of another USW branch local are braced to strike on 1 August at Voisey’s Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador province. The company takes nickel, copper, and cobalt reserves from northern Labrador. Similar to Ontario, USW Local 9580 had given Vale-Inco a temporary contract extension to resolve bargaining issues, but little positive movement has come from Inco.

Miners of USW Strike Vale’s Nickel Riches in Canada

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The ICEM lodged strong protest a week ago, demanding Turkey President Abdullah Gül veto a bill giving “Private Labour Offices” broad rights to place temporary workers in enterprises. On 9 July, President Gül did veto the bill, and now the ICEM demands the Turkish Parliament not bring it back. 
 
The bill was submitted by Parliament to Gül in late June after it cleared the legislative body without hearings or direct input from the country’s labour federations. The ICEM calls attention to this anti-social fact because global unions are targeting actions in Turkey and Thailand on Day of Decent Work, 7 October 2009, specifically over the precarious labour issue. 
 
The legislation, as written, would have given fees to labour brokers and it would have created a slave market composed of short-term contract workers. The proposal read that any person or entity could establish a private labour hire agency with a modest investment of TL 20,000, or €9,250. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Turkey.png" width="250" height="115"/>
“We applaud President Gül and his administration for doing the right thing to veto this,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “We now call on the global community to assist our Turkish comrades to make sure this bill does not surface again.” 
 
The ICEM credits Turkey’s three trade union federations for immediate and effective opposition to the legislation. The ICEM now calls on the Turkish Parliament to abandon this anti-people measure. 
 
Mustafa Kumlu, President of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (Türk-İş), said accurately it would render existing mechanisms between unions and government useless. Kumlu, an ICEM Executive Committee member, said “social rights, social security, and other benefits” would disappear under this legislation. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0812TesIsMustafa Kumlu.jpg" width="100" height="161"/>
Mustafa Kumlu
In the 7 July letter to Gül, Warda said creating such a labour system in a society is equivalent to “placing dynamite under the social structures.” He called it a “21st century employment relationship based on slavery.” 
 
ICEM work leading up to 7 October and after will partly focus on Turkish failure – in the eyes of the ILO – to implement Labour Conventions that the country has already ratified. A focus will also ensure that transparency and fairness become full partners in all social discussions leading to possible Turkish ratification of ILO Convention 181, the Private Employment Agencies Convention. 
 
The ICEM said in the letter to the Turkish government that the proposed law is not in compliance with the EU Directive on Temporary Agency Work, a standard passed in October 2008 that the ICEM insists must be adhered to by Turkey. The ICEM also labels the legislation a misguided response to the economic crisis, and an inhumane practice to even pronounce it as a measure to reduce operating costs.

Turkey: Labour Hire Veto Applauded, More Work Demanded

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Earlier this month 10,500 electricians in Ireland took strike action, seeking an 11 % wage increase, which is three years overdue. The strike affected work at construction sites and factories throughout the country. Pickets were suspended after a week, on 12 July, following Labour Court pay rise proposals. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) was balloting its members for an all-out strike to support the electricians in the lead up to the compromise. 
 
The compromise deal offered by the Labour Court includes a 5 % pay increase. Employer the Electrical Contractors Association (ECA) accepted the agreement, as did the 10,500 member Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU); however another employer the Association of Electrical Contractors of Ireland (AECI) derailed the settlement when they rejected the compromise last week. 
 
If the AECI, an association representing three hundred small electrical contractors does not reverse its decision to reject the compromise package, Ireland’s electricians will take strike action again from 1 September. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan has announced that she will intervene to encourage agreement between employers and the union. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0907.owen_willis.jpg" width="140" height="180" alt=""/>
TEEU General Secretary Owen Wills
TEEU general secretary Owen Wills welcomed Tanaiste Coughlan’s intervention, but stressed that the investigation must be handled speedily if strike action is to be averted. If the electricians are forced out on strike again, it is highly likely that an all out strike of other ICTU unions will be launched in the construction industry. 
 
Employers in the dispute had sought a 10 % pay cut for their contractors, but abandoned those demands following highly visible picket lines at international companies, such as Microsoft and Intel. 
 
Element Six, formerly de Beers diamonds, dumped 370 Shannon workers out of work last week, and is only giving redundant workers one week's pay for each year worked. Ireland currently has the worst economic situation of all countries in the euro zone and is set to contract by around 8 % in 2009. Taoiseach Brian Cowen is attempting to garner support for the extremely unpopular spending cuts that have been recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0907.Jack OConnor siptu.2.jpg" width="160" height="209" alt=""/>
SIPTU President Jack O'Connor
Union leaders reacted furiously last week when Brian Lenihan, the finance minister, appeared to contemplate a cut in the minimum wage if the rate is "inhibiting job creation in any particular sector". Jack O'Connor, the president of ICEM affiliate Services, Industrial, Professional, Technical Union (SIPTU), called on taoiseach Brian Cowen, to "rein in the hawks" in the Department of Finance who were pursuing "slash-and-burn policies". The government has now called for a two-year freeze in the minimum wage, currently at €8.65 an hour.

Ireland: Electricians Seek Action to Avert New Strike

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ICEM affiliate Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) of Trinidad and Tobago issued a dire warning last week to the government to stop trampling union rights and threats to full-time employment at state-owned energy concerns. 
 
At a mass meeting at OWTU headquarters in San Fernando on 1 October, President-General Ancel Roget said a week-long national strike, led by the country’s most powerful trade union, is imminent by the end of the year if the government and its enterprises do not stop the abuse. 
 
The island-nation has been gripped of late by government enterprises, the Telecommunications Service (TSTT) and the Public Transport Service Corp. (PTSC), taking legal action to decertify trade unions in those sectors because of labour incidents this summer. 

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OWTU members last week 
Photo: Trevor Hackett/Trinidad and Tobago Express
Late last week, just prior to a mass gathering outside the industrial court to protest the union decertifications, the Trade and Industry Minister, upon exiting from a cabinet meeting, said ministers would instruct the state enterprises to drop court actions aimed at decertifying the Communication Workers’ Trade Union and the Transport and Industrial Workers’ Trade Union. 
 
That was seen as a tangible retreat by the government to growing discontent by citizens angered by suppression of trade union rights in the public sector. 
 
But despite this, OWTU is waiting for the government and administrators of state-controlled oil and gas companies Petrotrin and Trinmar (Petrotrin’s offshore subsidiary) to back away from rhetoric that discredits its full-time workforce. The government has made claims that the energy companies are overstaffed by 2,000 workers, and that retrenchments might be inevitable. 

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OWTU President-General Ancel Roget
OWTU also takes offense to statements made by Petrotrin Chairman Malcolm Jones before a parliamentary committee meeting early last week. At a Public Accounts Committee meeting, Jones said Petrotrin’s permanent workforce at its Point-à-Pierre refinery was not performing well enough during a gasoline optimization project, thus forcing the company to hire temporary and contract workers at the refinery. 
 
At last Thursday’s emergency OWTU meeting, Roget called for an audit of the gasoline optimization programme, and said workers face “a runaway government” intent on imposing “all kinds of penalties and hardships for the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.” 
 
The government’s union decertification retreat in telecommunications and transport appears aimed at defusing possible mass unrest and mobilizations during the 27-29 November biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Port of Spain. 
 
But the government of Prime Minister Patrick Manning may face those protests anyway if Petrotrin and its bosses do not stand down from its demoralizing anti-worker rhetoric that has clearly irritated Trinidad and Tobago’s paramount trade union.

OWTU Will Use Direct Action to Defend Jobs, Unions in Trinidad and Tobago

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