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Union members at the Esso Union of Petroleum and Chemical Workers Federation of Thailand (PCFT) are in a pay dispute with Esso Thailand Co. Ltd. The 354 union members at a refinery in Sti-racha, Chonburi province, have staged protests at ExxonMobil’s Thai offices since 10 October over Esso’s refusal to meet adequate pay demands. 
Despite record profits and high petroleum prices, the company has stonewalled union demands to match pay increases equal to Thailand’s inflation rate. PCFT has reduced its pay demands in two government-conducted conciliation sessions and arbitration on the pay matter is scheduled for 4 November. 
Under Thai labour law, the Esso Union of ICEM affiliate PCFT is prohibited from striking because of its strategic importance in the energy industry.

Thai Affiliate in Pay Dispute with ExxonMobil

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A strike by Energy and Petroleum Workers’ Union (CGTM) of Mauritania continues against contracting firm El Majabaat El Koubra Tours (MKT). The two sides were before the Labour Inspectorate of Mauritania on 27 October in efforts to settle the 14-day strike, but recommendations put forward by the ministry were rejected by MKT. 
The company, a transport and logistics provider for Australian exploration and development company Woodside Petroleum, sacked 16 workers earlier in October after it signed a protocol agreement with the union that included a first of November date for union elections. Ten of the 16 workers were to stand for union election

Mediation Fails to Resolve Contractor Strike in Mauritania

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The ICEM has issued an urgent Circular to all affiliates for solidarity action on behalf of a branch of the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada concerning a five-month strike at a plant of Invista, a global chemicals company owned by US-based Koch Industries.
The Circular can be found at <a href="/?id=155&doc=1464" type="internal">/?id=155&doc=1464</a> and will be available in all statutory languages by clicking the respective language at the top-left of the homepage. ICEM has provided two model letters, one to the CEP local union as a sign of support, the other a protest letter to management in the US.

Urgent Action Needed in Support of Striking Canadian Union

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Croatian ICEM affiliate Autonomous Trade Union in Power Industry, Chemistry and Non-Metal Industry (EKN) has a merger agreement in place with another powerful union in the Balkan country. 
On 19 October, EKN’s Main Committee and the committee of the Metalworkers’ Trade Union of Croatia (SMH) signed a declaration of intent to merge to create the Confederation of the Trade Union of Metal and Chemical Industries.
The two unions will hold concurrent congresses in 2006 to formalize the merger, and a two-year process is proposed to coordinate the merger of affiliated unions into the new trade union, which will be independent and free from political party association.

ICEM Affiliate in Croatia to Merge with Metalworkers Union

The second issue of the ICEM e-bulletin on HIV/AIDS is here. At the beginning of this issue we would like to draw your attention to the new ICEM website <a href="http://www.icem.org" type="internal">www.icem.org</a>. Visit the website and click on HIV/AIDS. You will find the latest articles from ICEM sources. Links lead you to important HIV/AIDS sites of intergovernmental organisations and other Global Union Federations. 
You can also find useful materials such as the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work or the HIV/AIDS Mining Tool Kit produced by the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group, as well as the Annual Report of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the statistical updates on the pandemic published by UNAIDS. 
To introduce the subject of HIV/AIDS and the workplace, the ICEM has developed Power Point Presentations, which can be accessed through the website. There are versions for the regions Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and Latin America as well as a global generic version. Download and use them for your own awareness and prevention activities. 
 
We reiterate our call from the first issue of the e-bulletin. To spread the information on new agreements and campaigns and to build on best practices, affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org</a>. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome. 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an e-mail to <a href="mailto:press@icem.org">press@icem.org</a>. Please put “subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin” in the subject line. 
 
Unfortunately, the e-bulletin can only be published in English. For a free automated (non-ICEM) translation of this HIV-AIDS bulletin into other languages, you may want to try <a href="http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr">http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr</a> or <a href="http://www.google.com/language_tools">http://www.google.com/language_tools</a> and insert the following URL into the window “Translate a Web page“:  
<a href="/index.php?id=72&doc=1479 " type="internal">www.icem.org/index.php?id=72&doc=1479 </a> 
 
 
ICEM-JAF Asia and Pacific Seminar Focuses on HIV/AIDS 
 
The Asia and Pacific Seminar held in Tokyo on 27 October in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of ICEM-JAF, the coordinating body of ICEM affiliates in Japan, focussed on HIV/AIDS and the workplace. In his opening address, Kiyoshi Ochiai, the Chairperson of ICEM-JAF and the ICEM Asia and Pacific Region, stressed the increasing relevance of the topic for the region and the need for increasing workplace activities by unions.
After an introduction by ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, the Global HIV/AIDS Coordinator, Hans Schwass, gave a power point presentation and facilitated the session, which included country reports and presentations by Japanese organisations of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), such as PEOPLE Tokyo (Positive Living and Community Empowerment), the NGO-TU Forum on PLWHA collaboration and JaNP+ (Japanese Network of PLWHA). 
 
Trade union leaders from 14 countries and a large number of Japanese participants responded well to the message to intensify work on HIV/AIDS in the workplace and to increase awareness and prevention campaigns. The very timely seminar laid the foundation for the expansion of ICEM’s work in the Asia and Pacific region. 
 
 
New Lafarge Global Agreement Contains HIV/AIDS Clause 
 
The ICEM jointly with the IFBWW, the Global Union Federation for building and woodworkers, signed its twelfth global agreement with a multinational company. 
The agreement with the French-based building materials manufacturer Lafarge on corporate social responsibility and international industrial relations cites the ILO’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the ILO’s Tripartite Declaration of Principles on Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, the United Nation’s Global Compact and the OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. It contains a clause on HIV/AIDS committing the signatories to raise awareness and initiate prevention programmes in compliance with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work. 
 
 
WHO/Global Union Meeting Welcomes Universal Access 
 
In a historic first meeting in Geneva on 6 and 7 October, WHO/AIDS representatives from field offices in Africa and from the Head Office and trade union leaders from six sub-Saharan African countries together with representatives from Global Unions discussed the unions’ support for expanded access to treatment. Although the 3x5 Initiative had brought treatment to one million people by June 2005, the goal of the Initiative of three million by the end of 2005 will not be reached. 
The WHO recognises the role unions can play in scaling up treatment and achieving universal access. Meetings are planned at national levels in the six countries to develop sustaining partnerships between trade unions, WHO/AIDS, UNAIDS and ILOAIDS. 
 
 
COSATU Slams Government’s Response to HIV/AIDS
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has renewed its attack on President Thabo Mbeki and Health Minister Tshabalala-Msimang for failing to provide leadership in addressing the country’s HIV/AIDS pandemic. Speaking at the Treatment Action Campaign’s (TAC) annual conference, COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said that “denialism” meant the effects of HIV/AIDS were all too often ignored. 
The trade union federation has long been a supporter of TAC’s campaign to force the government to roll out antiretroviral treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. “We are sitting by while the biggest threat to our nation since apartheid is ruining our families and our communities,” said Vavi. 
 
According to TAC, about 10,000 people were receiving antiretroviral treatment at public health facilities. This meant that government had failed to reach its own (already low) target of 53,000 people. It is estimated that for every 10 people who needed antiretroviral treatment, only one was getting it through the public sector and another one through the private sector. 
 
(Source: Business Day, Johannesburg, 26 September 2005) 
 
 
Global Fund Approves Fifth Round of Grants 
 
At its eleventh board meeting in Geneva on 28-30 September, the Global Fund board approved 26 Round 5 grants in 20 countries that will cost US$382 million over the first two years, and provisionally approved, subject to sufficient funding being received next year, a further 37 grants that will cost US$344 million over the first two years. In total, these 63 "immediately approved" plus "provisionally approved" proposals will cost US$726 million over the first two years, and US$1.8 billion over five years. (The Fund approves proposals for five years but initially only commits funds for the first two years). 
 
The reason that some of the grants were only provisionally approved is that the Fund is short of cash (see article in e-bulletin No. 1); this, in turn, is because 2005 is the first year in which substantial amounts of money need to be spent on renewal of grants from earlier Rounds that have reached the end of their first two years. 
Grants that have only been provisionally approved will be formally approved in 2006 when sufficient donor pledges are received. However, any grants provisionally approved for which insufficient pledges have been received by the end of June 2006 will become "un-approved." Of the 63 grants to be eventually approved, AIDS grants account for 40% of funding while tuberculosis and malaria grants account for 27% each with the remaining funding dedicated to strengthen health systems. Africa receives 66% of the new funding. 
 
The board made no decision as to when Round 6 will take place. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Press Release of 30 September and Global Fund Observer Newsletter, Issue 51 of 3 October 2005) 
 
The GFO is an independent source of news, analysis and commentary about the Global Fund. The Newsletter is provided free of charge; to receive it send an e-mail to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 2

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A major demonstration set for tomorrow, 30 May, in Sofia, Bulgaria, by trade union organisations there has the full support of the ICEM. The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), together with another labour federation, will protest over government and employer disinterest in social dialogue talks with trade unions over a national income policy. 
 
The protest will also center on workers’ rights over their legitimate right to strike in Bulgaria, as well as gaining that rights for civil servants. 
In March 2006, the average monthly income of a Bulgarian family stood at €241, while average household expenditures rose to over €226 per month, according to the National Statistical Institute. “Bulgaria is the only one among the countries that are acceding to the European Union that does not have an income policy bargained at the national level,” said CITUB President Zhelyazko Hristov. 
 
In a poll taken last month, over 60% of Bulgarian trade union members insisted on national protest actions for the end of May, while 40% said they would join a national strike over the income and other issues if one were called. For ICEM’s letter of support to affiliate National Labour Federation of Chemistry and Industry on the 30 May demonstration, <a href="/index.php?id=9&doc=1810" type="internal">click here</a>.

Bulgarians Protest Tomorrow over Low Wages, Labour Rights

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Oil workers in southern Iraq conducted a one-day strike 21 February as grievance to the Oil Ministry’s neglect for work conditions and the infrastructure of the company. The strike at the Oil Transport Company of Basra was brought by the General Union of Oil Employees (GUOE) in Basra. 
The strike took place due to the deliberate and targeted neglect of the transport company by the ministry and government; for improvements in workers’ living conditions; and as a demand to pay money promised to workers by the Oil Ministry but never paid.

Iraqi Oil Workers Strike Oil Ministry in Basra

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An 18-day lockout of 58 members of Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union in New Zealand ended on 21 February after workers ratified a mediated settlement with a North Island regional electrical provider, Top Energy. 
The two-year accord gives the linemen a 5% wage increase, backdated to 1 July 2005, and a 4% wage increase in July of this year. The agreement also retains for workers key work-rule conditions, items that the community-owned electric distributor tried to take from workers in initiating the lockout.

Lockout Ends at Top Energy in New Zealand

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ChevronTexaco Nigeria Ltd. and one of its contractors, US-based Elper Engineering, face strike actions if the companies do not live up to terms of a collective agreement put in place five years ago. ICEM affiliate NUPENG met again last week in Nigeria with the two companies to resolve the dispute over back wages and severance, but the employers rebuffed efforts to settle the issue. 
The union declared its intent to resolve the dispute through social dialogue, but warned that NUPENG members working inside the two companies would strike if ChevronTexaco and Elper continue to avoid the issue. The two firms have granted the contractual obligation to a few employees, but have denied it to most. Contract workers at ChevronTexaco’s massive Escravos operations in Ugborodo, Delta State, and its shallow-water platform Funiwa off Bayelsa State are affected.

Dispute Festering in Nigeria Between NUPENG, ChevronTexaco

Following a two-day strike on 22 and 23 February, a two-week cooling off process is now underway between ICEM Belgian affiliate ABVV-FGTB and ExxonMobil at a polymers plant near Antwerp. The entire workforce of 350 totally shut down operations at the Zwijndrecht plant in a contract dispute for a 2006-2007 renewal. 
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Workers were incensed at the wage offer presented to them. Also in dispute is management’s proposal to reduce staff by increasing automation. 
Determined worker unity under the guidance of ABVV-FGTB brought the company back to the table, where a conciliator did remove some obstacles to a new agreement on 27 February, the day the two-week cooling off period took effect. Labour and management will return to talks on 14 March.

Belgian ExxonMobil Strike Over; Talks will Resume 14 March

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