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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The fate of 33 Chilean miners is still uncertain today, following a roof collapse on Thursday afternoon, 5 August, inside a copper and gold mine owned by Campañia Minera San Esteban Primera in the country’s northern Atacama desert. 
 
Today, a series of six holes were being bored to where the miners are thought to be. Sound-detection equipment will then be used in hopes of making contact with the miners. 
 
Rescue attempts on Saturday, 7 August, had to be suspended after further roof collapses occurred. Teams had traversed some 240 metres down ventilation shafts in efforts to reach the trapped miners when the cave-ins happened. The miners are trapped some 450 metres beneath the surface. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/04miningsafety.jpg" width="180" height="132"/>
There is an emergency shelter near that level that contains food, water, and oxygen for up to 72 hours. But one miner familiar with the shelter said it was small and could not hold 33 persons. 
 
The mine has a history of underground land-slides, and only a few weeks ago a miner lost a leg after he was trapped by fallen rock. In 2007, three miners died inside the mine and an adjoining mine owned by the company due to the same set of circumstances. 
 
Both a company spokesman and a legislative deputy from the region were quoted as saying the mine area has great geological faults, particularly in its deeper regions. The Secretary-General of the San Esteban Primera Mine Workers’ Union, Javier Castillo, said workers had continually warned of the hazards inside the mine dating back to 2003. 
 
Campañia Minera San Esteban is a junior Chilean mining concern that at one time was 40% owned by Cobre Mining Co., an extension of the former Aurex Resources of Vancouver, Canada. It is unclear if the North American company still has a stake in the San Esteban mine, some 800 kilometres north of Santiago near the city of Copiapo. 
 
Chile is a major global mining country that has not ratified ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention.

33 Miners Feared Dead Inside a Copper, Gold Mine in Chile

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
A lockout of 230 steelworkers by the American-based electronics firm Honeywell continues into month four at the company’s uranium hexaflouride (UF6) plant in the state of Illinois. Honeywell locked out members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669 on 28 June over workers’ refusal to accept steep out-of-pocket increases to their health care plan, as well as complete elimination of retiree health care coverage. 
 
The company’s demands are a slap in the face to workers who must toil inside an industry rife with hazards and long-term health risks. The plant in Metropolis, Illinois, on the Ohio River, is America’s only facility that mills “yellow cake” uranium into frozen fluid UF6 for enrichment use in nuclear reactors. 
 
The health risks to the community have become even more pronounced because Honeywell seeks to regain lost production by using temporary replacement workers, a draconian American management practice used in employer-imposed lockouts. Although the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not as yet authorized untrained scab workers to operate the Metropolis facility, Honeywell has retained a nuclear contracting firm called the Shaw Group to supply replacement workers. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1009.usw.superman.jpg" width="128" height="192"/>
The mayor of Metropolis, Billy McDaniel, expressed concern over community safety in a report in the St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch newspaper last month. With trained union workers represented by the former Oil, Chemical, Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) operating the facility dating back 46 years before that union’s 2005 merger with the USW, McDaniel said, “I never went to bed at night worried about the men being trained and capable of doing their jobs. I want to do that every night.” 
 
Added Chief Sheriff’s Department Deputy Ted Holder of Massac County, the governmental unit responsible for evacuation and emergency response in the event of a disaster, the use of non-regular employees to restart the facility is “a little concerning.” 
 
USW Local 7-669 offered to continue working under a prior three-year labour agreement that expired on 21 June 2010. The union is seeking no salary adjustments, but seeks to retain current health coverage. When the USW did not concede to granting management a 24-hour strike notice prior to any potential strike, Honeywell locked workers off their jobs. 
 
Under Honeywell’s proposal, out-of-pocket health coverage will increase to US$8,500 per worker each year. And besides eliminating company-paid health coverage for current retirees, Honeywell’s regressive proposals include establishing a two-tier pension scheme with future hires relegated to an inferior plan. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1009.usw.superman.2.jpg" width="123" height="148"/>
On 7 August, 3,000 union supporters traveled from across the American Midwest to Metropolis to lend support to Local 7-669. Earlier, and directly in front of the uranium enrichment facility, the Steelworker local branch erected 42 Christian crosses in memory of former workers who have died over the years from cancer. They erected another 27 smaller crosses as symbols of workers currently diagnosed with cancer. 
 
“What we do is a very, very dangerous job,” stated Local 7-669 President Darrell Lillie. “We deal with the worse acids known to man.”

Lockout of USW-represented Uranium Processing Plant in US Continues

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Chemical workers employed by French-based Rhodia in University Park, Illinois, chose the United Steelworkers (USW) in a US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) union certification election on 15-16 July. The vote for USW representation, by an overwhelming 62-11 count, came after the union enforced plant management neutrality through the ICEM’s Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with Rhodia. 
 
When University Park workers contacted the USW in spring 2010, they were seeking a voice at work and economic parity with other unionised Rhodia workers in the US. Rhodia bought the specialty surfactants, polymers, and cosmetic preservatives plant earlier in 2009 from privately-held McIntyre Group of US. Among seven Rhodia plants in the US that are organised by the USW, three are in the Chicago, Illinois, area, so University Park workers did not have far to go to do comparisons. 
 
But their bosses had a different idea. They began traditional efforts to dissuade workers from joining the USW, including pay offers and work-time meetings in which anti-union messages were delivered. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0803Rhodiasigning.jpg" width="200" height="133"/>
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Rhodia CEO Jean-Pierre Clamadieu at the 25 March, 2008, signing
The USW responded by reaching out to corporate leadership in France through the ICEM in order to halt local management’s violation of the GFA neutrality commitment. With ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal Özkan working directly with senior leaders of Rhodia in Paris, a joint ICEM-Rhodia declaration was distributed in early July to University Park workers by both the USW and local managers. 
 
It was signed by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Rhodia Group Vice President Pascal Jeury, with CEO Jean-Pierre Clamadieu endorsing the joint message. The declaration reminded that Rhodia’s “commitment to remain strictly neutral” in workers’ unionization campaigns is intact, and cited seven points in Article 3, Paragraph 7 of the GFA (found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0809RhodiaGFAEnglish.pdf" type="internal">here</a>), including the point: “Rhodia respects the right of employees to organise themselves collectively and will remain strictly neutral concerning their choices in this matter.” 
 
Özkan also secured a pledge from the corporate office to stop the in-plant managers’ meetings. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USAUSW.jpg" width="180" height="99"/>
With the government-supervised election nearing, workers became unconstrained by management rhetoric and harassment and voted for USW by 86%. Warda said the vote reflects a promising future for labour-management harmony at University Park, and thanked corporate Rhodia for its immediacy. 
 
The USW effectively put the language of the agreement in motion, and won US government certification. “Rhodia has committed to strict neutrality under an ICEM agreement and pledge,” said USW Organising Director Mike Yoffee. “While the US managers did not fully live up to this, it still had somewhat of an impact on neutralizing the company’s campaign, and gave our organizers the opening to make an issue of whether the US managers could be trusted to live up to their commitments.” 
 
The new bargaining unit at the 18-month-old Rhodia-owned plant numbers 83. 
 
The USW also won union bargaining rights for miners in British Colombia, Canada, last week. Some 260 workers at molybdenum mines and operations owned by US-based Thompson Creek Metals had their union finally certified by the provincial labour board. They voted 26-28 May, but details prevented the BC labour board from opening the ballot box until 22 July. The miners work at the Endako Mines and now are proud members of USW Local 1-424 based in Prince George, BC.

In America, USW Forces Neutrality to Win Labour Rights for Rhodia Workers

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The 14-year exchange and engagement between ICEM and the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) took a major step forward recently when a 13-member ICEM delegation, led by President Senzeni Zokwana, visiting Beijing for top level meetings with several leading ACFTU officials. 
 
The 15-16 July meetings, attended by 45 people, found discussions centering on the theme “The Global Crisis and Job Protection.” The meetings mark a new crest in ICEM-ACFTU relations, following participation by ACFTU representatives in ICEM Asia-Pacific activities this year. The activities include the regional committee meetings in Sydney, Australia, in April, and an electricity network meeting in Korea. 
 
In the near future, ACFTU representatives will take part in an oil and gas workers’ workshop in Vietnam in August and a pharmaceutical unions’ workshop in Indonesia in September. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1007.acftu.china.group.jpg" width="343" height="154"/>
The mid-July Beijing forum opened with presentations by Zokwana and Jiang Guangping, ACFTU’s Director-General of the International Department, who welcomed the ICEM by stating engagement with an active industry-based Global Union Federation is crucial to the ACFTU. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda gave reports related to Contract and Agency Labour, ILO Convention 176 (the Health and Safety in Mines Convention), Sustainable Development and Just Transition efforts, Global Framework Agreements, and Social Dialogue initiatives. Chinese industry sector leaders then reported on coal, electric power, petroleum, petrochemical, chemicals, pharmaceutical, and land resource matters in China. 
 
Other ACFTU officials that lead structures within the Chinese Defense Industry, Postal and Telecommunications Workers’ Union, the Chinese Finance, Commerce, Light Industry, Textile and Tobacco Workers’ Union, and the Machinery, Metallurgical and Building Materials Workers’ Unions also gave reports. 
 
Participants shared country experiences on trade union actions, and also discussed plant-level responses and solutions regarding for job protection. Germany’s Petra Kronen, for instance, the head of the Works Council and a supervisory board member of Bayer, explained flexible work-time arrangements taken between her union, IGBCE, and Bayer in order to avoid layoffs during the financial crisis. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ChinaFLAG.gif" width="140" height="94"/>
Besides Zokwana and Warda, the ICEM delegation consisted of ICEM leaders from several affiliated unions, including: Per Sörensen of 3F Union, Denmark; Mats Svensson of IF Metall, Sweden; Michael Mersmann and Petro Kronen of IGBCE, Germany; Isidor Boix of FITEQA-CC.OO, Spain; François Laurent, CSC Bâtiment, Industrie & Energie, Belgium; Yoshio Sato of ICEM-JAF, Japan; Ian Murray of Construction, Forestry, Mining, Energy Union (CFMEU), Australia; and Robert Reid of the National Distribution Union (NDU), New Zealand. Also in attendance were Kemal Özkan, ICEM Chemical and Rubber Industries’ Officer, and Phee Jung-sun, ICEM Materials Industries’ Officer and Regional Contact Person for Asia-Pacific Region. 
 
The ACFTU officials participating included Zheng Chengfu, President of the Chinese Energy and Chemical Workers’ Union; Fang Dan, Vice President of Chinese Defense Industry, Postal and Telecommunications Workers’ Union; Cai Ruixia, Vice President of Chinese Finance, Commerce, Light Industry, Textile and Tobacco Workers’ Union; Ma Hua, Director of Chinese Machinery, Metallurgical and Building Materials Workers’ Union; Zhang Jianguo, Director General of the Collective Bargaining Department of the ACFTU; Enyi Xu, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Energy & Chemical Worker’s Union; Guo Wencai, Director General of ACFTU’s Organizing Department; Xie Liangmin, Deputy Director General of the Law Department of the ACFTU; and Chen Jieping, Deputy Director of ACFTU’s Social Security Department. 
 
A full and detailed report on the mission, prepared by the ICEM’s Özkan, can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ACFTU%20Edited.pdf" type="internal">here</a>.

ICEM, ACFTU Complete High Level Mission in China

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Elections for Germany’s Works Councils occur every four years, with votes cast in May and June 2010. The ICEM-affiliated IGBCE received strong backing in these elections. With some results still to be analysed, around 81.2% of newly-elected council members in the union’s industrial sectors are IGBCE members. 
 
IGBCE is present in approximately 3,450 companies in Germany. The 2010 results show a stabilisation of the turnout (74.3%) and of IGBCE’s strong position, with very little change from the 2006 and 2002 elections. The number of council chair-people who are members of IGBCE has risen slightly, to 92%, as did the number of women who were elected – 26.2%. 
 
The IGBCE is now running a support project for newly-elected Works Councils in small companies, with less than 200 employees. The coaching lasts 14 weeks, and includes an online password protected forum, where views and guidance can be exchanged for newly elected council members. 
 
IGBCE also recently won a legal case, entitling Works Council members to have internet access in the workplace. Employers are now obliged to supply council members with a computer connected to the internet, in addition to an office. 
 
Works councils are employee representative bodies with a range of co-determination, information, and consultation rights with respective companies. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1007.Ulrich.Freese.IGBCE.jpg" width="150" height="112"/>
IGBCE Deputy Chairman Ulrich Freese
The recent results are seen as a clear indication of trust and confidence in the IGBCE. “We have played a major role in ensuring that the financial crisis did not break through on jobs. Strong unions and strong works councils have prevented redundancies and ensured stability,” stated IGBCE Deputy Chairman Ulrich Freese.

German Works Council Elections Cement IGBCE’s Strong Mandate 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
In the rush to get copper production from the Cananea mine back on world markets, is Grupo México disregarding the safety and health of contract workers? So it seems by an apparent undocumented rash of on-the-job accidents and injuries in the short six weeks since federal police opened the mine in Sonora State for the company. 
 
Following a 16 July accident in which a sub-contract worker was hospitalised after a five-metre fall, military police secured the perimeter of the hospital, not allowing anybody to enter. When leaders of Section 65 of the Mexican National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union (SNTMMSRM) tried to lend assistance to the injured worker, they were turned away by “a violent and arrogant grenadier,” according to a report. 
 
Workers of Los Mineros at Cananea claim there have been 20 such accidents with injuries since mine rehabilitation began following the military takeover on 6 June. But this cannot be confirmed because safety reporting, if it exists, is never verified. This non-transparency at a major copper recovery project is a pox on Grupo México and a pox on federal Labour and Interior Ministries, and on the State of Sonora, the latter governmental agencies that have all taken up reconciliation roles. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1007.cananea.jpg" width="220" height="148"/>
Federal police violently take control at Cananea, 6 June 
Photo - IMF
The pitiful irony is that Grupo México and federal police used brute force to reopen the Cananea mine on 6 June, crushing a strike that began over health and safety in 2007. Now they are at breakneck pace, using disposable contract workers, to re-start Cananea at a time – during first quarter 2010 – that world copper supply fell short of refined usage. 
 
In a media interview in late June, Grupo México’s Isaac Lopez Arzola, the director-general of Southern Copper’s Mexicana de Cobre S.A., which functions as the company’s copper operating and servicing subsidiary, said 700 workers are now employed at the mine, all non-direct to Grupo México and Southern Copper, and the responsibility of individual contractors. That number is expected to climb to 1,700. 
 
Compared to a global investment strategy totaling US$2.8 billion, Grupo México is spending only US$114 million to bring Cananea into production, rushing to get it done by first quarter 2011 to meet continued high copper prices. In turn, Southern Copper will double its global copper output over the next few years, making it the world’s third largest copper producer. 
 
With copper prices doubling in early 2010 over copper pricing in early 2009, and considering that every 1% jump in the copper price equates to an estimated 1.3% rise in Grupo México’s equity value, should the company concern itself with safety, or the injuries of non-direct workers? 
 
Apparently not, except to surround them with militia so their stories cannot be heard.

Grupo México’s Infamous Safety Legacy Lives on at Cananea

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Thanks to dogged persistence by ICEM affiliate Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada, the fate of the 133,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery Shell refinery in Montréal is still open and subject to sale. Last week, following a second court injunction prohibiting dismantling of the refinery until 10 September, Shell announced it again would negotiate with the Delek Group of Israel over purchase of the refinery. 
 
At stake are the jobs of 500 workers represented by the CEP. In January 2010, Shell announced plans to radically restructure its global downstream operations, including closure of the Montréal East refinery by 1 June. 
 
The Anglo-Dutch multinational said it would continue operating part of the site as a terminal and distribution centre for scores of Shell retail outlets scattered across Québec and Canada’s Maritime Provinces. Such continuance, however, would require only 30 workers. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMoil5.JPG.JPG" width="120" height="120"/>
The CEP and its Montréal branch union, Local 121, has battled relentlessly to find a buyer, as well as to press provincial and federal authorities to keep the refinery operating. Shell rejected bids by potential operators last spring and union members believe Shell wants the refinery shut, with imported petroleum products distributed through the terminal. 
 
On 8 July, a Québec Superior Court granted the union a ten-day injunction preventing any cannibalizing of the refinery. “We believe that maintaining the equipment in good condition until we get satisfactory answers to our questions about offers to but the facility” is in everybody’s best interests, said Local 121 President Jean-Claude Rocheleau. 
 
On 16 July, that injunction was extended into September. Meanwhile, last week on 20 July, Shell stated at a federal parliamentary hearing of the House of Commons that it re-open talks with Delek, a holding company in which its wholly-owned subsidiary, US Holdings Inc., operates a crude pipeline, refinery, and hundreds of gasoline retail outlets in the southern US. 
 
Delek had been an earlier bidder for the refinery, but Shell rejected the bid as too low. The ICEM remains hopeful that CEP will succeed in achieving sale of the refinery, preserving jobs for the union’s energy workers. Shell operates two smaller Canadian refineries, in Sarnia, Ontario, and in Edmonton, Alberta.

CEP Fights to Keep Shell’s Montréal Oil Refinery Operating

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Over 3,300 garment workers in Kandal province, southern Cambodia, have been sacked after they took strike action in protest of the new monthly minimum wage for the sector. That wage, set in July, is for US$61 a month. 
 
There is also widespread discontent among workers in the sector over poor working conditions and unemployment. The main cause of anger now is the retaliatory sacking of strikers, and especially of the trade union activists for their roles in the strikes. 
 
Workers had demanded a raise of the minimum monthly wage from US$50 to US$93. The new minimum of US$61 does not constitute a living wage in Cambodia. Unions began a four-day strike on 13 September. The strike did not become an issue for employers until the third day, at which time an estimated 200,000 workers had joined the walk-out. It was stopped on 16 September so talks could resume. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Patrick Itschert.jpg" width="180" height="146" alt=""/>
ITGLWF General Secretary Patrick Itschert
But then further strike action was carried out by 10,000 workers on 17 September, calling for the reinstatement of 200 suspended union representatives, blocked from returning to work in blatant breach of their rights to organize, bargain, and strike. 
 
Social Affairs Minister Ith Sam Heng called for the reinstatement of all sacked workers, and pleaded with unions not to strike. His call was followed by three factories in Kandal province employing 3,300 workers who announced their refusal to comply with the Minister’s request. 
 
While it was the promise of more negotiations that stopped the strike, neither the government nor employers have indicated any likelihood of significant concessions. The government did call employers and unions back together on 27 September for talks. 
 
The International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) welcomed the meeting on September 27 brokered by the government, but criticised the strike-breaking tactics of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government. 
 
“[The government] filed law suits against union leaders on charges of ‘incitement,’ and appealed to the police to collaborate with the industry association GMAC in cracking down on the strike and in seizing materials which could be used in legal action against the strikers,” said ITGLWF General Secretary Patrick Itschert. 
 
Clothing brands and retailers including Adidas, Gap, H&M, and Levi’s wrote to employers and unions to express their “great concern” at the unrest, but have expressed no concern over the poverty wages paid to those workers making their products. 
 
Global retailers must take responsibility for the social damage caused by the “race to the bottom.” It is impossible for workers to receive anything higher than poverty wages unless global retailers pay suppliers reasonable prices. Instead, suppliers are forced year on year to produce larger orders at lower costs. 
 
Kandal province, where the affected factories are located, completely surrounds but does not include the national capital Phnom Penh.

Cambodian Garment Workers Sacked for Striking

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The leadership of the Coal Industry Workers’ Union of Ukraine (PRUPU) was strongly heard at a meeting of the Coal Ministry Board in Kiev on 15 October. 
 
The Coal Ministry’s Board meeting was held under the instruction of Ukraine’s First Vice-Premier Andrei Klyuev, who said at a Cabinet meeting on 16 September that the challenges facing the coal industry must be addressed. The Vice-Premier’s instruction resulted from a report delivered by Victor Turmanov, PRUPU President, who vividly highlighted the most burning of the problems that besiege the industry’s workers and mine sites today. 
 
There was no “quiet talk” at the 15 October meeting but rather strong words on the industry’s problems among the close circle of the Ministry officials and the heads of state-owned enterprises attending the meeting. Klyuev’s instruction stipulated that the Ministry Board meeting shall involve representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour, State Assets Fund, Ministry of Industrial Policy, Ministry of Transport, Ministry for Fuel and Energy, and the leaders of the Ukrainian coal miners’ union. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Victor Turmanov.jpg" width="115" height="115"/>
Victor Turmanov, PRUPU President
Raising wages was one of the main issues that the union raised at the meeting. In line with the effective law, the minimal wage in Ukraine has been raised to 907 hryvnas from 1 October, yet the actual wages at the operating coal mining sites are calculated using the old basic rates and salaries based on the last year’s figure of 744 hryvnas. 
 
And the situation is even worse for the III-d category mines, mine rescue teams, coal-mine builders, and workers at coal processing plants. For workers in the sub-sectors of the coal mining industry, the basic rate of 744 hryvnas is still but a dream. 
 
In this regard, Turmanov pointed out that “our priority task is to ensure that the wages go up for industry workers. This was one of the key issues at the Ministry Board meeting.” 
 
Unfortunately, bringing wages up to the level prescribed by the law is far from being the only problem in the coal mining industry. 
 
In view of the 15 October Ministry Board meeting, leaders of all territorial organizations of the union met on 28 September to prepare a well-defined list of priority issues facing the industry’s sites and workforces to be brought to the attention of the enlarged Ministry Board. 
 
Issues such as the lack of funds for the development of mining facilities or provisions for fuel for homes of coal miners also generated points of discussion. Sharp criticisms were voiced with regard to the Ministry’s efforts reforming the regional (oblast) management structure of coal mining sites and other actions. 
 
Union President Victor Turmanov said that if the Ministry of Coal is unable to reform the industry today, the government – and the President – must be told so in so many words. If reforms contradict the interests of workers and prove harmful to the enterprises, then we should be better off without them, leaving the industry governance system in its present form. The union shall brook no mindless attempts at reorganization, no reforms for reform sake! 
 
View a video report from the 28 September territorial meeting of union leaders <a href="http://www.prupu.org/video/">here</a>. The union’s web site is <a href="http://www.prupu.org">here</a>.

Ukrainian Miners’ Union Get Heard at Coal Ministry Board 

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Some 90 members of Unite the Union in the UK, employed at the Saxon Way, Corby, warehouse of Oxford University Press, will begin a second round of strike actions this week over the publishing house’s inferior 2010 wage offer. Members of the GPM Section of Unite staged an initial 24-hour strike on 12-13 October, following a lawful strike ballot and formal rejection of a 2.5% increase. 
 
Last year, warehouse workers accepted a wage freeze in recognition of the financial crisis, only to learn after signing that managers, call centre workers, and admin staff of Oxford University Press had been awarded 2% increases. The 90 workers, who will soon be moved to new warehouse space at Prologis Park, Ketterling, are seeking a 2010 increase of 4.2% to offset last year’s loss. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UKUNITE.jpg" width="92" height="108" alt=""/>
“The company is doing well. It recorded an 8% increase in profit last year, on the back of a £500 million turnover, so our members believe they are well within their rights to ask for 4.2%,” Unite National Officer Steve Sibbald told the industry publication Printweek. 
 
Further industrial actions are scheduled for next week on 28 October and again on 3 November. Messages of support to workers can be sent to Unite Regional Officer Kathy Brooks <a href="mailto:Kathy.brooks@unitetheunion.org">here</a> who will relay all solidarity notes to striking warehouse workers.

Warehouse Workers of Oxford University Press to Strike Again

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