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The 9 August, International Day of Action to free Iranian trade unionists Mansoor Osanloo and Mahmoud Salehi produced protests in 34 nations, with hundreds of protest letters posted demanding their release. 
 
In Iran on 9 August, supporters of free trade unions who attempted to assemble in protest at the Tehran home of Mansoor Osanloo, leader of the Sherkate Vahed bus drivers&rsquo; union, were met by armed state security agents, positioned to prevent any demonstration or dissent concerning his 10 July arrest. Iranian secret police also arrested five executive board members in the hours before worldwide protests began. 
 
The International Day of Action was called by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF). Osanloo was arrested following a European labour tour and an appearance at the ILO&rsquo;s June International Labour Conference. Salehi, a co-founder of the Saqez Bakery Workers&rsquo; Association, was arrested last April for trade union activities.
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9 August: In front of Iran Embassy, Brussels
Demonstrations, delivery of protest letters and petitions occurred in many world capitals, including London, Brussels, Paris, and Canberra, Australia. In Geneva, a delegation of trade union leaders from the ITUC, Public Services International (PSI), Union Network International (UNI), International Food, Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF), and the coordinator of the Global Unions Council did meet with the Iran&rsquo;s ambassador at the country&rsquo;s mission. 
 
But in most capitals, Iranian embassy officials refused to meet with trade union leaders. Demonstrators chanted and, in some cases, forced letters and petitions through fences at barricaded embassies. In London, scores of unionists rallied at Iran&rsquo;s embassy in Knightsbridge and presented a petition with 3,000 names demanding the release of Osanloo and Salehi. 
 
Speaking at the rally upon hearing the news of the other union arrests in Iran, ITF General Secretary David Cockroft said, &ldquo;If the Iranian government wants to know why workers worldwide are putting them under pressure, they&rsquo;ve just supplied the answer. Our demand is a reasonable one &hellip; the basic right to join a union. The government&rsquo;s clumsy, brutal attempts to stifle it are just making it heard more widely and strongly.&rdquo; 
 
In Brussels, 60 unionists that included staff from the ICEM turned out in a pouring rain to protest. In Paris, trade unions CFDT, CGT, FO turned out members to protest at Iran&rsquo;s embassy. In Canberra, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) was joined by Iranian exiles in seeking the release of the two being held in Iran.
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9 August: ICEM staff protests it Iranian Embassy
A mass demonstration occurred at Queens Park at Canada&rsquo;s parliament in Ottawa; in Vienna, Austria, a bus was used by VIDA and the Transport and Services Union tom deliver protest letters to Iran&rsquo;s embassy; in Spain, UGT and CC.OO teamed up to deliver the petition to Iran&rsquo;s embassy in Madrid; in Bucharest, Romania, the union Federatia Sindicala Transloc picketed the embassy there; and other actions on 9 August happened in Norway, Sweden, and Finland. 
 
In Trinidad and Tobago, the Seamen and Waterfront Workers&rsquo; Union held a press conference; in India, trade unions NUSI and TDWU held protests; and in Indonesia, 300 transport workers gathered at the Iranian embassy in Jakarta to demonstrate. 
 
Other actions occurred in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia. In Egypt, the General Union of Land Transport Workers and the General Union of Air Transport Unions delivered a letter to Iran&rsquo;s embassy. A letter was also delivered by Jordanian unions to Iran&rsquo;s embassy in Amman, while in both Morocco and Tunisia, demonstrations were held at Iranian diplomatic missions. 
 
The date of 9 August was chosen because it is the one-year anniversary of Osanloo&rsquo;s release from jail in 2006, which came about through mass global trade union protests. Osanloo has now been incarcerated three times for his trade union activities in Iran.

9 August: Global Dissent Pours Forth Over Illegal Jailing of Iranian Trade Unionists

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The ICEM is intent that justice will come for workers at several Turkish worksites currently in labour-management disputes. The ICEM is doing this in efforts behind the scenes, and leadership of the global union federation recently visited picket lines at two of those disputes: Sanovel pharmaceutical in Istanbul and Fresenius Medical Care&rsquo;s Novamed plant in the free trade zone of Antalya. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Chemicals and Rubber Industry Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan visited those sites recently, and the visits generated numerous press articles inside Turkey.
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&nbsp;Manfred Warda (center) with Sanovel workers 

At the Sanovel İla&ccedil;ları pharmaceutical company, located in Silivri, Istanbul, 190 members of ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş were sacked after joining the union. 
Sanovel, a leading pharmaceutical company in Turkey, dismissed five union leaders on 4 April 2007, after all production workers joined the union. And then on 6 June, the company announced that it had terminated the employment of 190 union members. Management was blunt; it said union status disqualified workers from being able to perform their jobs. 

Workers have been assembled in protest at the plant now for 69 days. On 31 July, Warda and &Ouml;zkan visited the fired union members at their plant. Warda told them and their family members: &ldquo;Your struggle is for decent working conditions. Your struggle is for your rights as guaranteed by the constitution and your national laws. Your struggle is for universal human and trade union rights. 
 
&ldquo;After we return to Brussels, your struggle will be known to all fellow workers and you will receive even more international solidarity,&rdquo; said Warda. &ldquo;This struggle will ring out until companies like Sanovel recognise trade union rights and it will be our duty to expand this struggle at the global level. Your struggle is ours!&rdquo;
The 31 July action was organised by Petrol-İş, and the union has done much to receive support from the public. Doctors&rsquo; and pharmacists&rsquo; associations have declared their support for the workers, and many in the medical professions are refraining from recommending Sanovel products to their patients. 
 
The other dispute that ICEM leaders paid a call to also involves Petrol-Iş, and is the first-ever strike called by a Turkish union in a free-trade zone. Since September 2006, 84 workers &ndash; 82 of whom are women &ndash; have been on strike against German-headquartered Fresenius Medical Care and its Turkish subsidiary Novamed. Strikers have been picketing that plant now for 322 consecutive days.
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Petrol-İş President Mustafa &Ouml;ztaskin speaks to workers
On 3 August, the ICEM&rsquo;s Warda and &Ouml;zkan visited the strikers in Antalya. At its meeting in May, the ICEM Executive Committee produced a special resolution on this strike after the ICEM&rsquo;s Women&rsquo;s Committee took it up. 
 
Speaking to the strikers, Warda said, &ldquo;The whole world knows of your struggle and you must know trade unionists in many, many countries are behind you. Your struggle is not only for fair and just wages, but also human dignity. 
 
&ldquo;Last March 8, on International Women&rsquo;s Day, your voice was carried by the ICEM throughout the world, and we will continue to do just that,&rdquo; said Warda, who praised the strikers for their decisiveness and promised to continue to press to change the company&rsquo;s anti-worker prejudices everywhere in the world.&rdquo; 
 
Warda and &Ouml;zkan were accompanied by the President of Petrol-İş, Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkın, and the union&rsquo;s General Secretary Mustafa &Ccedil;avdar.

Turkish Labour Struggles Given ICEM Spotlight

Two trans-Atlantic unions that have plans to merge, the United Steelworkers (USW) of North America and Unite of the UK, launched a joint campaign on 21 June to highlight the negative role that private equity companies are having on the global economy. The two unions called on governments and world economic bodies to fairly regulate such capital entities. 
 
The two unions, both ICEM affiliates, announced the joint campaign at the opening of merger talks in London. 
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&quot;Our two unions will work closely together to lobby governments in Europe and North America to restrict the activities of corporate raiders, to protect the jobs and the pay conditions of working people,&rdquo; stated Unite Joint General Secretary Derek Simpson. 
 
&ldquo;Private equity firms highlight the reason that we are exploring a merger with Unite,&rdquo; added USW President Leo Gerard. &ldquo;Global finance must be confronted by global labor.&rdquo; 
 
Unite&rsquo;s other Joint General Secretary, Tony Woodley, said, &ldquo;Private equity funds are the world&rsquo;s largest source of cash, funded mostly by workers&rsquo; pensions, paying little or no tax. There&rsquo;s something seriously wrong in any country where this happens.&rdquo; 
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The unions seek transparency into the activities of private equity companies, and they seek a closure of tax loopholes that reward short-term manipulation at the expense of job creation and workers&rsquo; income. 
 
It is estimated that workers&rsquo; pension funds now provide up to 25% of private equity capital. In 2006 alone, private equity funds raised a total of US$221 billion, up from US$33 billion ten years ago. To illustrate the harm that takeovers, buy-outs, and the inevitable restructurings bring, last year, a total amount of US$730 billion in leveraged deals was done. That compares to only $37 billion a short five years ago. 
 
The tax paid by managers of such deals, who make sometimes tens of millions of dollars in a single deal, is sometimes less that tax paid by an ordinary worker.

USW of the United States and Unite of the UK to Challenge Greed of Private Equity Funds

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Negotiations in the gold, platinum, chrome, diamond, coal, and iron ore mining sectors of South Africa head into July with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and major mining companies being far apart on wages. 
 
Disputes have been declared in nearly all the talks, with NUM seeking two-year increases ranging from 11% at DeBeer's diamond-mining operations to higher at platinum and gold mining operators. Contracts expired on 30 June but talks are likely to continue throughout July, under the guidance of the CCMA, the governmental agency where NUM has filed for dispute resolution. Such filings are necessary before a union can legally take strike action. 
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This set of negotiations comes amidst an escalating South African inflation rate, especially food and fuel costs. The talks also come when commodity prices are high, and the mining houses are reaping huge profits. 
 
Gold and platinum, two natural resources in which South Africa leads the world in production, have seen rising demand, resulting in higher pricing. Gold was selling for US$420 an ounce in early 2005. In June 2007, it was selling for nearly US$653 an ounce. And platinum, which finds South Africa supplying 75% of the world's markets, has seen price rises of 18% since the beginning of 2007. 
 
NUM is seeking wage increases for the two years in most sectors of about 15%. 
 
&quot;When we talk of double-digit (increases) we mean business and we are not in the business of playing games with our members' mandates,&quot; said NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni. 
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NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni
To date in talks, the mining companies have put forward wage offers that fall far short of South African inflation. The Chamber of Mines, representing AngloGold Ashanti, Goldfields, and Harmony in gold talks, have offered only 6%. DRDGold is bargaining outside the chamber, but its current offer is insufficient. 
 
The same can be said for the chamber's low offer in coal negotiations. In platinum, where AngloPlatinum, Impala Platinum, Lonmin, and Northam are the country's leading producers, the employers' wage offer of between 6-7% falls short of NUM goals. 
 
At Kumba Resources, an iron ore producer, the NUM is seeking 13.5%, while DeBeers offer to diamond miners is 7% next to NUM's demand for 11%. 
 
The NUM knows that no mining settlement has ever been reached without a fight. Now, as negotiations head into July, South Africa's largest and most militant trade union expects just that.

Disputes Declared in South Africa&#039;s Mining Negotiations

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South Africa's mining industry is getting more dangerous, judging from a rash of deaths in June in the country's gold and platinum sectors. Overall, mining deaths in 2007 far outpace those occurring in preceding years, making a 2003 goal by the Chamber of Mines of achieving zero workplace deaths by 2013 difficult to imagine. 
 
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), ICEM's largest trade union affiliate in South Africa, believes mining houses are spending large sums to increase production in this period of high precious commodity pricing, but very little on safety prevention. 
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A&nbsp;study done by a South African organisation, Bench Marks Foundation, cites an audit done by AngloPlatinum, a company hit with the most June mining deaths. The audit reveals that an AngloPlats review of its deaths in mining shows more emphasis is placed on establishing blame &quot;rather than on identifying causes and instituting measures to prevent the occurrence of accidents.&quot; 
The world's largest producer of platinum, 75% owned by AngloAmerican, witnessed five June deaths in its South African operations, which caused the company to close its massive Rustenburg operations for seven days on 18 June in order to conduct a safety audit. 
 
AngloPlatinum is responsible for 17 deaths in South African mines so far in 2007. Twelve of those came at Rustenberg. That compares with a total of 19 in 2006, 17 of which came at Rustenburg.
AngloPlat's sister company, AngloGold Ashanti, has fared no better. Globally, in the first quarter of 2007, AngloGold experienced its worst quarter of mining deaths since 2004. Fourteen miners perished in the first three months of 2007, including nine in the company's South African gold operations. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="250" />
Rival Goldfields is responsible for ten mining deaths in South Africa so far in 2007. 
 
Last year, a total of 199 mining deaths were recorded in the country's mines, including 113 in gold operations and 40 in platinum. If the recent May-June spate of nearly 50 deaths continues, the 2007 death toll will far exceed those occurring in 2006. 
 
The NUM has formally called for an urgent tripartite meeting to resuscitate South Africa's Mining Health and Safety Summit in order to address the current deficiencies in mine safety. Even the Chamber of Mines, at its third annual health and safety meetings early in June, said that drastic action is needed now to curb the high level of mining deaths. 
 
The NUM endorsed the chamber's statement, but says mining houses must begin to &quot;walk the talk.&quot; In the Bench Mark's study, commissioned by the three major platinum producers, AngloPlatinum, Impala, and Lonmin, the NGO said the dramatic increase in production levels is responsible for an adverse effect on safety. 
 
The chief researcher to the year-long study recommends that bonuses of top executives be linked closely to safety performances. 
<img height="161" alt="" src="" width="130" />
NUM and ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana
NUM President Senzeni Zokwana said, &quot;Workers feel let down by the state's judicial system since no employer has ever been hauled before a court of law in the circumstances in which people lose their lives, although legislation is clear on that.&quot; 
 
&quot;Miners are losing their lives and limbs, while the majority of accidents are preventable,&quot; added NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni. The NUM insists that all parties concerned in South Africa, from the relevant governmental agencies to all levels of management inside the mining companies, give the matter of health and safety in mining the top priority it deserves.

2007 Mining Deaths Become Worrisome in South Africa

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On June 25, 2007, 30 employees of the Russian &ldquo;State Institute of Organic Synthesis Technology&rdquo; (or FGUP GITOS) went on a hunger strike for an indefinite period. They were driven to this extreme measure by the inability of the Federal Agency for Industry to settle wage arrears, going back to 2003. 
 
In the past, FGUP GITOS was involved in technology research and development, including on highly toxic substances. When Russia signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993, the R&amp;D work at the Institute ended. 
<img height="99" alt="" src="" width="100" />
All conversion schemes subsequently launched at the enterprise have failed. Since June 2004, the FRUP GITOS, the only industrial employer in the town of Shikhany, in the Russian Saratov Region, has been going through a bankruptcy procedure, which has been persistently obstructed by the Federal Agency for Industry. 
 
In June 2005, the Federal Agency set up one of the business units of the FGUP GITOS as a separate entity and transferred production floors, the infrastructure , the State order, and 230 employees of the FGUP GITOS to the new legal entity. In April 2006, the FGUP GITOS itself, with the remaining 200 employees, was declared bankrupt and put into receivership. Currently, all employees of the FGUP GITOS have received redundancy notices. 
 
In July 2006, in an attempt to prevent a hunger strike announced by the FGUP GITOS union, a Joint Commission was formed, with representatives from the Federal Agency for Industry, the Interregional Trade Union Association SODRUZHESTVO, affiliated to Russian Oil and Gas Workers Union (ROGWU, ICEM affiliate), the Government of the Saratov Region, the local authorities of Shikhany, and the workforce. The Commission had the task of determining the amount of wages and social benefits owed to both former and current GITOS employees and finding a way to settle the arrears. 
<img height="67" alt="" src="" width="100" border="1" />
Some efforts towards financial assistance were arranged. However, most failed, and others were manifestly insufficient. 
 
In February 2007, the FGUP GITOS union announced its decision to picket the Federal Agency for Industry. After they were first told that it was &lsquo;all their own fault&rsquo;, promises were made to the workers that the enterprise would be reorganised. Those promises were never fulfilled. 
 
More workers are determined to join their 30 striking colleagues if nothing is done. The workers also intend to organise a march to Moscow and file a mass complaint with the European Human Rights Court. 
 
Alerted to the situation by ROGWU, the <a href="/index.php?id=8&amp;doc=2309&amp;la=EN">ICEM sent a letter to the Russian Prime Minister</a>, stating its grave concern and urging the Federal Government to ensure an immediate resolution of the dispute and settlement of all social benefits and wage arrears which currently stand at RUB 88 million (&euro; 2.5 million), including wage arrears, union dues, payments to the pension fund and health benefits.

Russian Chemical Workers start Hunger Strike

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The ICEM is asking trade unionists to write protest letters to Unilever&rsquo;s vice president for Global External Affairs, drawing attention to trade union rights violations in Pakistan and India. The ICEM is assisting its sister Global Union Federation, the International Union of Food Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF), in protests to the company over its conduct at food and beverage plants. 
 
In November 2007, Unilever management at a factory in Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan, fired all but five of the plant&rsquo;s temporary workers, following a Pakistani union&rsquo;s announcement that it would allow membership to the workers and fight to secure permanent status for them. 
 
The fired workers were replaced by staff from a labour agency. The sacked workers were forced to sign termination letters in front of armed police and Elite Troops forces, who were called into the plant by local management.
<img height="100" src="" width="100" alt="" />
This latest incident coincides with an IUF complaint to the UK contact point over violations of the OECD&rsquo;s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. 
 
Additionally, Unilever managers at a plant in Assam, India, have actively undermined trade union leaders in that factory. Management has sponsored creation of a yellow union there in the course of a long lockout aimed at supplanting the legitimate trade union. 
 
A model letter can be found <a href="/index.php?id=7&amp;doc=2576&amp;la=EN">here</a>, that includes the name, address, and fax number of Unilever&rsquo;s Global External Affairs vice president. Please send a copy of your letter to ICEM&rsquo;s Chemicals Officer, Kemal &Ouml;zkan, at <a href="mailto:kemal.ozkan@icem.org">kemal.ozkan@icem.org</a>.

ICEM Encourages Unilever Protest Letters on Company’s Pakistan, India Conduct

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BHP Billiton&rsquo;s hostile bid for mining rival Rio Tinto escalated last week, just prior to a 6 February deadline by the UK Takeover Panel to either increase a November 2007 bid or walk away from the takeover for a period of six months. BHP Billiton increased its share-swap offer by 13%, offering 3.4 shares of BHP stock for one Rio Tinto share. 
 
In November, BHP offered a three-to-one share swap, meaning the price of the takeover would be US$120 billion. This latest unsolicited bid raised that price to US$147 billion. If successful, the combined company would dominate world production and sales of bauxite, coal, copper, diamonds, lead, silver, titanium, and uranium. It would also rank a high second, behind Brazilian Vale, in iron ore output, but would control vital markets of Australian ore destined for China. 
<img height="50" src="" width="100" alt="" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="51" src="" width="102" alt="" />
The proposed takeover would represent the world&rsquo;s second biggest corporate takeover. Only Vodafones&rsquo;s US$172 billion buy-up of Mannesmann in the year 2000 surpasses BHP&rsquo;s current bid to Rio Tinto shareholders. Rio Tinto executives said the latest offer still undervalues the assets of the Australian- and UK-based company. 
BHP was pressed to increase its offer following a 1 February purchase of some US$14 billion of Rio&rsquo;s London-traded shares by Aluminium Corp. of China (Chinalco), a state-run mining company. Chinalco put up US$12.8 billion, while US-based Alcoa put in US$1.2 billion. Together, they now own 9% of Rio Tinto, and the share price paid increased the valuation of Rio Tinto by 23%. The premium share purchase was seen as a blocking move by Chinalco that is sure to complicate a further, enhanced bid by BHP Billiton. 
 
According to Sweden&rsquo;s Raw Materials Group, a combined BHP Billiton/Rio Tinto would control a full 17% of world production of mined resources. If constituted under the latest bid, Rio Tinto shareholders would hold 44% of the combined company, an increase from the 36% under terms of the offer posed in early November.

BHP Billiton Raises Stakes in Pursuit of Rio Tinto

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The British labour movement came together last week to push a Private Member&rsquo;s Bill into committee stage of the House of Commons. That bill, authored by Labour MP Andrew Miller, would give labour agency workers the same rights and benefits as full-time, permanent workers. 
 
On 6 February, labour unions, led by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), held a mass day of lobby at Westminster, spotlighting a second hearing of Miller&rsquo;s bill that saw trade unions produce gruesome testimonies of abuse by agency workers themselves. British work sectors &ndash; from service to foods to industrial &ndash; have been flooded by labour agency firms offering low-wage, no-strings-attached workers to employers.
<img height="50" alt="" src="" width="100" />
&nbsp;Last week&rsquo;s turnout moved the Private Member&rsquo;s Bill to a House hearing, which will occur on 22 February. The day of lobby also came six days after the Labour Party&rsquo;s Executive Committee voted to endorse it, an action that Labour Party Prime Minister Gordon Brown cannot ignore without serious fall-out from trade unions. 
 
&ldquo;The Labour Party committed to introduce UK legislation to protect agency workers before the last election,&rdquo; said Chairman Tony Dubbins of the Trade Unions for Labour Organisation, &ldquo;and now we and 1.4 million agency workers in the UK&rdquo; have been promised it again. &ldquo;Now we need the government to act on that promise by backing Andrew Miller&rsquo;s bill.&rdquo; 
 
But that may not come easy, just like it didn&rsquo;t during the Blair government, despite a Labour Party commitment for equal rights to all workers contained in the 2004 Warwick Agreement. British business groups are opposing the measure, claiming it would hold back achieving flexible labour markets, and often, serve as a means for gaining a full-time job. 

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said, &ldquo;Far from providing a bridge to permanent work, this runs the risk of creating a whole underclass of temporary workers who cannot get permanent work. Many employers are using agencies to replace secure jobs with reasonable terms and conditions with insecure, badly paid agency staff.&rdquo; 
The TUC points out that employer&rsquo; interests will advance when temporary workers gain equal workplace rights, at the same time as receiving fair pay and social benefits. The union federation said there is a disturbing lack of awareness among employers on how maximizing experience and skills of workers out of labour agencies can benefit their enterprises. 
Besides Barber, the day of lobby also featured Tony Woodley, Joint General Secretary of Unite, and Bill Hayes, General Secretary of the Communications Workers&rsquo; Union. Woodley called passage of the agency worker bill a &ldquo;defining moment&rdquo; for the British government &ldquo;because people are looking for equal treatment.&rdquo;
<img height="50" src="" width="100" alt="" />
In Ireland, trade unions are pressuring their government to stop acting as a barrier to a European Directive for equal treatment for contract and agency workers. Blair Horan, representing the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said trade unions will withhold affirmative support to the Irish government for passage of the Lisbon Treaty referendum until the government reverses its agency-worker stand in Brussels. Ireland, Germany, Poland, and the UK have blocked a European Directive on Agency Workers.

UK Push for Law Granting Equal Rights to Temp Workers

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In August 2007, 13 ICEM affiliates created an ICEM Turkish Coordination Committee. At that time, Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) was defined as one of the priorities on which joint activities would occur. 
 
In cooperation with Germany&rsquo;s Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), a Turkish national conference of those affiliates was held on 31 January &ndash; 1 February, 2008, in İstanbul on CAL. Some 80 trade unionists, journalists, and university professors attended. 
The conference opened with a speech by Mustafa Kumlu, an ICEM Executive Committee member and President of the Turkish Electricity, Water, and Gas Workers&rsquo; Union, Tes-Iş. He is also the current president of the country&rsquo;s biggest national labour centre, T&uuml;rk-Iş. The meeting also saw the active participation of ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, and FES&rsquo;s İstanbul representative, Bettina Luise R&uuml;rup. 
<img height="212" alt="" src="" width="350" />
ICEM's Kemal &Ouml;zkan and Manfred Warda, EMCEF's Reinhard Reibsch
After presentations by ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan on the the Global Union Federation&rsquo;s CAL Project, by the ILO&rsquo;s Slava Egorov on ILO actions on contract labour, the employment relationship, and agency work, and by EMCEF General Secretary Reinhard Reibsch on the European situation, the conference heard national experiences from Germany, Sweden, and The Netherlands. 
 
In Germany, IGBCE&rsquo;s Michael Wolters reported there are now 630,000 agency workers employed by 19,000 labour agencies in the country. This constitutes 10-15 % of the total workers in industries in which the German union operates. Agency workers earn 30 % less than permanent workers. 
 
According to Hans Palmqvist of Swedish IF Metall, there is an Authorisation Board in Sweden that controls 450 private agencies, employing 43,000 workers. A Swedish trade union has managed to reach a collective agreement with one such agency, C&amp;L. 
<img height="142" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The agency labour issue is also a burning issue inside The Netherlands. Celil Coban and Osman Elmaci from FNV Bondgenoten, both Turkish-originated trade union officials for the union, reported that only 1,200 agencies out of 12,000 are operating with official certification. Even when FNV Bondgenoten negotiates with employment agencies for collective agreements, wages remain low and working conditions are sub-standard for agency workers. 
 
The three examples from Germany, Sweden, and Holland clearly shows that the unionisation rates for agency workers are far less than those for permanent workers. 
 
The conference also heard detailed reports and analyses on Contract and Agency Labour in Turkey. During the conference, a major explosion at an unregistered factory operating in the black economy resulted in 23 deaths. 
 
According to statistics, the number of workers employed in the informal economy in Turkey is 4.7 million, according to Mustafa &Ouml;ztaskin of ICEM affiliate Petrol-Iş. Dating to the 1980s, the problem in Turkey is that new owners in privatised sectors have used subcontracting in order to eliminate union representation. 
 
Metin Bozkurt, Organising Secretary of Cement Workers Union, &Ccedil;imse-Iş, reported that multinational companies in the cement industry use subcontractors in all facets of production. Privatisation has also caused problems in energy, reported Murat Aytemiz, Vice-President of Tes-Iş. According to Aytemiz, some 50% of the workforce in the energy sector is employed by subcontracting firms. 
 
The situation in the mining sector was defined as thus by Dr. Fikret Sazak, Director of Education Department of Mine Workers Union, Maden-Iş: &ldquo;Our mining areas have become mole holes after privatisation and subcontracting.&rdquo; He reported that contract labour in pits is overwhelming, for example, in a main coal mining area, 2,750 out of 10,500 miners are subcontractors.&nbsp;
<img height="285" src="" width="380" alt="" />
In public services as well, subcontracting and agency labour is a major factor in lowering salaries and weakening the working environment. Ismail Hakki Kurt of Belediye-Iş pointed out that &ldquo;trade unions have real difficulties in bargaining because permanent workers are the minority, while agency workers are not unionised.&rdquo; 
In the glass industry, according to Can Safak, Director of the Collective Bargaining Department at Kristal-Iş, subcontracting first appeared in nonqualified and side jobs. Kristal-Iş tried to tackle the problem through reclassification of positions. The union also managed to get language in the sectoral level collective glass agreement, stating that no subcontractor can be employed at the production level. 
 
At the end of the discussions, it was agreed that a series of joint activities on organising, in general, would be undertaken. And then, specifically, the issue of Contract and Agency Labour in Turkey will now come under the ICEM&rsquo;s global project. 
 
<a href="/index.php?id=73&amp;doc=2593&amp;la=EN">To access presentations at the Conference, click here</a>.

ICEM Turkish Affiliates Gather to Discuss Contract and Agency Labour

Archive

9 August: Global Dissent Pours Forth Over Illegal Jailing of Iranian Trade Unionists

Turkish Labour Struggles Given ICEM Spotlight

USW of the United States and Unite of the UK to Challenge Greed of Private Equity Funds

Disputes Declared in South Africa's Mining Negotiations

2007 Mining Deaths Become Worrisome in South Africa

Russian Chemical Workers start Hunger Strike

ICEM Encourages Unilever Protest Letters on Company’s Pakistan, India Conduct

BHP Billiton Raises Stakes in Pursuit of Rio Tinto

UK Push for Law Granting Equal Rights to Temp Workers

ICEM Turkish Affiliates Gather to Discuss Contract and Agency Labour

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