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Contents: 
	 
	1. Africa - Gender Equality Protocol 
	2. Australia - Gender Wage Gap Grows 
	3. Brazil - FETIESC - Gender and Labor Market 
	4. Colombia - Message from Beatriz Chinchilla 
	5. France - New Anti-Discrimination Panel 
	6. Iceland solves the Problems of an ageing Society? 
	7. Italy - Violence Hot-Line 
	8. Norway - Boardroom Equality 
	9. WHO - Avoiding Maternal Deaths 
	10. Resources 
	 
	 
	1. Africa - Gender Equality Protocol 
	 
	A petition was handed over to Navin Ramgoolam, Prime Minister of Mauritius and Chairman of the Southern African Development Community, to demand a protocol for accelerating gender equality in the region. It was signed by 100 civil society leaders and regional groups. The regional bloc adopted a 1997 Declaration on Gender and Development, but the petitioners believe it has not achieved its objectives. Only South Africa and Mozambique have achieved the target of 30 percent female representation in parliament, for example. The groups want the declaration elevated to a legally binding protocol that would include new targets, such as appointing women to 50 percent of decision-making positions by 2010. It would also require member states to guarantee gender equality in their constitutions, take legislative aciton and allocate funds to fight gender violence, and ensure that constitutional law takes precedence over customary law. The proposed protocol enjoys broad support and has already been endorsed by senior officials. 
	 
	 
	2. Australia - Gender Wage Gap Grows 
	 
	The wage gap between men and women in Australia has widened by 2 percent in the past decade, as announced by the Australian Social Trends report. The report found that as of 2004, females earned only 92 percent as much as their male counterparts, resulting in a gender wage gap of 8 percent. Ten years earlier the gap was only 6 percent. But it also found that women aged 20-24 who have recently entered the workforce actually earned 7 percent more than their male counterparts, although the figure slips back behind men as they get older. The report compared men and women on the basis of hourly average weekly earnings, rather than overall earnings, to allow for the fact that women were more likely to work fewer hours because of family responsibilities. Only full-time employees who worked in non-managerial positions were considered, to allow easier comparison across different sectors. But there was a 23 percent gap between male and female workers in the finance and insurance sector, while women are 21 percent worse off in the mining sector, although recent pay increases for women in the mining sector have outstripped those of men. 
	 
	 
	3. Brazil - FETIESC Gender and Labor Market 
	 
	FETIESC held a seminar on gender and the labor market on 5 August, where ex-state deputy Pedro Uczai conducted the debate on gender and stated that, &quot;women have to manage conflict at work and at home in order to combat discrimination.&quot; For him, workers have internalised the exploitation so that they double output in the same time, which results in work-related illnesses such as RSI, repetitive strain injury. &quot;Pay discrimination is huge to the extent that women&#039;s pay is subordinate to men&#039;s; the men are comfortable with this because they have internalised on-the-job discrimination.&quot; According to Professor Cristiani Bareta da Silva, we are living in an emergency for women as individuals. &quot;In Brazil it is inadmissible for women to earn 30% less than men, even with higher educational levels.&quot; The situation is even worse in the case of black women - they earn half what men earn. Cristiani Bareta da Silva calls it age and racial inequality. For her the solution is to revitalise domestic space, to create more convivial areas, to raise children with gender equality and to do away with the idea that women have a monopoly on the home. 
	 
	 
	4. Colombia - Message from Beatriz Chinchilla 
	 
	&quot;I would like to say that in my union we have already started working on the action plan that we adopted in Sao Paulo in May. We reported to the national executive, and next 11 August we have a national meeting of CONAMUS, our national committee in SINTRAELECOL, to develop the plan. On the other hand, I would like to say that the government took away from men and women workers the possibility to have a collectively agreed pension, and they left only one scheme where women have to contribute much more money and much longer time, which means very little possibility for a pension. The women&#039;s groups are asking for abortion to be decriminalized in case of rape or fetus malformation.&quot; 
	 
	 
	5. France - New Anti-Discrimination Panel 
	 
	President Jacques Chirac inaugurated a new panel to monitor and fight discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, beliefs or physical disability. The 11- member panel, headed by the former chief executive of automaker Renault, includes leaders of women&#039;s rights groups, labor unions and the French Red Cross. The panel will have an annual budget of 10.7 million euros. 
	 
	 
	6. Iceland solves the problems of an ageing society? 
	According to OECD figures, 45% of the population of the European Union will be over 65 in the year 2020. One small country in the North Atlantic seems to have a solution, Iceland. Iceland ranks first in Europe in the birth rate, and it is a pioneer in women&#039;s participation in working life in addition. At the same time it has the lowest unemployment figures, both for women and men. Part of the solution can be found in its generous treatment of parents. In Iceland parents are entitled to a total of 8 months of parental leave at 80% pay. Both fathers and mothers are entitled to parental leave. A similar system exists in Sweden. About 80% of fathers in Iceland do take advantage of parental leave. Both men and women are able to work and enjoy family life. This means that for employers it is just as &quot;risky&quot; to hire a man as to hire a woman. The concerns about rising unemployment were also relieved, since unemployment amounts to about 3%. In our ageing societies we need to have a debate on a social model in which taking care of children and working life can be combined as they should be. 
	 
	 
	7. Italy - Violence Hot-Line 
	 
	The Italian government has set up a hot-line for women victims of violence. It is a 24-hour service, which will put women into contact with all help agencies, from police to psychologists. In the last three years 118,000 women have been victims of sexual violence in Italy, although the figure is likely to be higher since many cases are certainly not reported. 
	 
	 
	8. Norway - Boardroom equality 
	 
	Get more women on your board or we will shut you down, is the message from the Norwegian government to companies. Norwegian women have a tough time getting seats on boards. In Norway over 15 % of board members in private sector companies are women, but in a country where over a third of MP&#039;s and 8 out of 19 cabinet ministers are women, the figure is too low. Last year the Norwegian parliament passed a bill to force private companies to have at least 40% women on their boards. Companies had until July to boost participation of their own accord. If the number are insufficient, which the government will decide by August, then sanctions will be applied. From September new companies that do not comply will not be able to register, while existing firms will have another two years to find women for their boards. If they do not, they will be closed down. Already more than half way to its goal of 40%, Norway has the highest female participation rate in the world, ahead of Sweden and the United States. 
	 
	 
	9. WHO - Avoiding Maternal Deaths 
	 
	One out of 16 women will die of birth-related causes in poor countries. The WHO, World Health Organisation, calculates that every minute a woman dies during childbirth. The worst is that 90% of these deaths are avoidable. The situation has to do with the difficulty that women have in exercising their rights in connection with education and health, the right to work and the right to equal opportunities. Ten years after the Cairo summit women&#039;s needs are still not the priority of governments. Poverty, conflicts and natural disasters worsen the reproductive situation. Some countries such as China, Egypt, Honduras, Mexico, Jamaica and Tunisia have achieved a better record in maternal mortality. But resources will have to be earmarked for campaigns and sanctions to protect maternal health. Everything is linked - education is vital. When a woman can go to school, have access to adequate training, and a dignified job, she will be prepared to make an informed decision about motherhood. 
	 
	 
	 10. Resources 
	 
	For a website on gender issues, please see www.awid.org/wrec/ , Women&#039;s Rights and Economic Change, which is also available in French and Spanish.

ICEM Women&#039;s bulletin No. 4 - September 2005

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Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on 15-16 November 2005, 65 global trade union delegates from 17 countries at the ICEM World Conference for Pulp and Paper Industries, adopted the following statement: 
 
We recognise the current business difficulties in the global paper industry and inevitable restructuring, affecting workers and their families. However, the conference adopted a Resolution, making it clear to the Pulp/Paper Industry that continued International Trade Union Solidarity will be utilised to protect the interests of workers and their families at this difficult time in the global paper sector. 
 
The Conference also took note of the recent unprecedented international solidarity actions. This lays the ground for further international networking in the Pulp and Paper Industry. 
 
Such actions clearly demonstrate the will of ICEM global trade union affiliates in the Pulp and Paper Sector to use International Solidarity to resist harsh and inhumane attacks on workers and their collective bargaining agreements to achieve business goals. 
 
The conference adopted the following proposals: 
<ul>
 <li>During the next four-year period until the next ICEM World Conference for the Pulp and Paper Industries, affiliates will seek to initiate dialogue and achieve further ICEM Global Framework Agreements with pulp and paper companies; 
 </li>
 <li>Affiliated Trade Unions will adopt new and innovative international networking methods to further enhance Global Trade Union Solidarity; 
 </li>
 <li>Trade Unions in the industry will be fully joined to the ICEM&rsquo;s campaign against the abusive use of Contract and Agency Labour in all facets of work; 
 </li>
 <li>Affiliates will exercise greater vigilance in monitoring and ensuring responsible behaviour by global pulp and paper companies with regard to health, safety and the environment; 
 </li>
 <li>Affiliated Trade Unions will undertake to increase their efforts regarding the all-important gender issue, and seek to ensure Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value, and the elimination of all gender-based discrimination at workplaces. </li>
</ul>
It is the determination of all Affiliates and the ICEM to ensure that they are able to report real achievements on the above agenda at the next World Conference for the Pulp and Paper Industries. 
 
Adopted on 16 November 2005 
Brussels, Belgium 

For more information on this conference, including background documents and presentations, click <a href="/index.php?id=147">here</a>.

ICEM Declaration on the Pulp and Paper Sector

<img height="55" src="" width="138" alt="" />
A deadly past several weeks has brought more deaths from China&rsquo;s mines. 
On 11 November, 19 perished due to a gas explosion at Bayinsai Coal Tar Co. in Wuhai city, Inner Mongolia. That was preceded by two separate gas blasts on 6 November, claiming a total of 52 miners. At the one in Xingtai County, Hebei province, three gypsum mines collapsed killing 36 and seriously injuring another 30. The other happened at the Taiping Coal Mine, Shanxi province, where 16 died in a gas blast. 
On 8 November in Qitai County in the autonomous region of Xinjiang Uygur, 14 died in a workers dormitory where an employee of Beitahsan Coal Mine was handling explosives. Sixteen coal miners died on 27 October due to an explosion inside the Zhongxing Coal Mine near Aksu city in northwest Xinjiang region. 
Drilling through a water-eroded cave brought death by drowning to 28 miners on 4 October at Guang&rsquo;an Energy Group&rsquo;s Longtan Coal Mine in Sichuan province. A day earlier in Henan province, 34 miners died from a gas explosion at the Henan Hebei Coal Co., a joint venture between the state and Thai-based Banpu plc. And on the evening of 2 October, ten people died when they were overcome by gas after sneaking into a molybdenum mine in Liaoning province to work illegally. 
China&rsquo;s State Administration of Coal Mine Safety will have closed 7,000 mines due to safety concerns by the end of the year, and another Chinese agency posted on its website that in order to qualify for financial incentives available for safe mining practices, managers must accompany workers into mines on each shift.

More Deaths Hit China’s Mines

<img height="55" src="" width="138" alt="" />
ICEM affiliate National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) won a labour court ruling late last month against Continental Tyre. The court ruled the company must reinstate 40 workers who were retrenched at a Port Elizabeth factory in July. 
The unilateral decision by the company to curtail weekend shift operations and manpower in some areas of the plant last summer brought ICEM intervention with the German Works Council of Continental. 
In a separate decision also issued in late October, a South African Labour Department inspector determined that Continental violated the Employment Equity Act that seeks to correct racial imbalances left over from the apartheid era. The inspector found that Continental&rsquo;s policies have failed to assimilate blacks and whites into common work practices. The Port Elizabeth tyre factory employs 1,200. 
Meanwhile in Germany, IGBCE has won a year&rsquo;s reprieve for 500 Continental Tyre workers at the St&uuml;cken plant in Hannover. The plant was scheduled to close at the end of 2006, but ICEM&rsquo;s German affiliate convinced the company to keep the plant operating until December 2007.

NUMSA Wins Court Ruling in Continental Tyre Dispute

<img height="55" alt="" src="" width="138" />
All in all, South Africa&rsquo;s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is pleased with DeBeers&rsquo; finalised Black Economic Empowerment plan. 
But one major flaw persists: a 15% set-aside for &ldquo;key&rdquo; employees has been inserted into the agreement that has weighted the 26% stake held by newly-created Ponahalo Investment Holdings. Conforming to statute, DeBeers spun that portion of its Consolidated Diamond Mines in South Africa into a minority stake that will be 50% owned by workers and former workers, and another 50% owned by community interests and business people. 
But &ldquo;spoiling the apple-pie,&rdquo; the NUM states, is the 15% set-aside of this latter stake to key employees, which could lead to patronage or even racism. 
NUM Gen. Sec. Gwede Mantashe singled out the positive fact that Ponahalo, or &ldquo;emergence&rdquo; in the Setswana language, will be headed by a former diamond worker and trade unionist. &ldquo;This new partnership with DeBeers will lead to the betterment of workers and the communities of diamond mineworkers,&rdquo; he said.

NUM Sees Flaw in DeBeers’ Black Empowerment Deal

<img height="55" src="" width="138" alt="" />
ICEM&rsquo;s Social Dialogue project in Colombia has seen its first direct positive result, and glassmaker Owens Illinois is the employer that made it happen. 
ICEM and Colombian affiliate Sintravidricol had lobbied the US company to bring multiple plants of its Peldar and Vildriera Fenicia subsidiaries under a common labour agreement. Through commitment to dialogue rather than confrontation, Sintravidricol and the company successfully negotiated separate but similar agreements at two of the plants. 
The ICEM applauds both the union and Owens Illinois managers in Colombia for charting a course of respectful collective bargaining. ICEM&rsquo;s Social Dialogue project in Colombia, launched in October 2004, is in place due to strong support of Swedish unions.

Social Dialogue Project Makes Headway in Colombia

<img height="55" alt="" src="" width="138" />
Heavy-handed tactics by management of Stora Enso ended an 11-day strike by workers at a newsprint and publications mill in Gent, Belgium, 8 November. 
Local managers at the company&rsquo;s Langerbrugge paper mill refused any honest discussions on workplace issues, and succeeded only in placing 330 angry and victimized workers back on paper machines and other equipment. 
ICEM Belgian affiliate ABBV-FGTB, though not the largest union in the mill, led the strike for better pay and dignity on the job. Fifty-six percent of workers voted to continue the strike on 8 November, but a rule called for at least 60% strike approval if the walkout was to continue.&nbsp;

Stora Enso Managers Break Belgian Paper Strike

<img height="55" src="" width="138" alt="" />
Tensions remain high between ICEM affiliate Communications, Electrical &amp; Plumbing Union (CEPU) of Australia and Western Power. The issue of outside contractors is central to the dispute. 
Western Power, citing potential blackouts, has petitioned the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to terminate the 600 line and maintenance workers&rsquo; right to strike. 
CEPU has implemented industrial actions over the pay, overtime and contracting dispute, but on 31 October called off a possible action because the utility had conceded a matter over discipline&mdash;whether or not workers were entitled to union representation. Days earlier, a Western Power confidential letter leaked, detailing outsourcing plans including dividing an entire grid into zones and then allocating maintenance of those zones to contractors. 
CEPU termed the strategy &ldquo;privatisation by stealth.&rdquo; CEPU Secretary Bill Game, quoted in a Perth newspaper, said, &ldquo;Our guys are saying it&rsquo;s clearly their core work that is being outsourced. Part of what we are trying to do is prepare the industry for young people coming in, so that they can have permanency and security and not having to run all over the place doing outsourcing work.&rdquo;

Ongoing Dispute in Australia Between CEPU and Western Power

<img height="55" alt="" src="" width="138" />
ICEM Australian affiliates AMWU and CFMEU, along with public health groups, picketed James Hardie&rsquo;s profit announcement meeting last week in Sydney because of company delays in signing a final compensation package for victims of asbestos-related diseases. 
After heavy pressure, the building products company agreed last December to sign an A$4.5 billion package over 40 years for workers inflicted with the deadly diseases. James Hardie was announcing a half-year&rsquo;s profit jump of 67%, or A$141 million. 
The company, meanwhile, instigated, a labour dispute at two Queensland plants beginning 26 October when it locked out 110 workers, represented by Australian Workers Union (AWU), at one of the plants. Some 120 workers at the other launched an immediate sympathy strike. The dispute is over James Hardie&rsquo;s intent to divide the common enterprise agreement shared by workers of the two plants. 
AWU calls the company action one of greed, timed to coincide with passage of proposed industrial relations reform that would, among other things, severely weaken enterprise agreements. 
The 26 October lockout and strike at Meeandah and Carole Park plants near Brisbane lasted 28 hours and have been repeated twice in the ensuing weeks. Managers at the two plants have also punished workers by withholding scheduled production bonuses, amounting to A$1,200 per worker.

James Hardie Still Problematic in Australia

Click <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0511drugtesting.ppt">here</a> for an ICEM Powerpoint presentation on Drug Testing in and around the workplace.
The presentation offers an international overview on current regulations and practices in the area of work related drug testing. It discusses, amongst others things, the different rules and legislations that apply, providing a large number of country overviews. It also takes a look at the ILO's position on the subject and, towards the end, talks about the role of civil society. 
The presentation was made in October 2005 at a Special Energy Conference, organised by the CEP, ICEM affiliate in Canada, in Vancouver.

ICEM Powerpoint presentation on Drug Testing

Archive

ICEM Women's bulletin No. 4 - September 2005

ICEM Declaration on the Pulp and Paper Sector

More Deaths Hit China’s Mines

NUMSA Wins Court Ruling in Continental Tyre Dispute

NUM Sees Flaw in DeBeers’ Black Empowerment Deal

Social Dialogue Project Makes Headway in Colombia

Stora Enso Managers Break Belgian Paper Strike

Ongoing Dispute in Australia Between CEPU and Western Power

James Hardie Still Problematic in Australia

ICEM Powerpoint presentation on Drug Testing

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