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7 September, 2009
Leaders from ICEM trade union affiliates in India met in Kolkata on 3-4 September and officially formed an Indian ICEM Affiliates’ Council, with BK Das of the Indian National Mineworkers’ Federation (INMF) selected as coordinator. At last week’s meetings, the 21 delegates also formed a strategy around ICEM’s Contract and Agency Labour Campaign, aimed at recruiting such workers into their unions.
Union leaders from the Mining, Chemicals, Cement, and Diamond Polishing sectors took part in the two-day meeting, sponsored in part by the FES India office. The forum was organised as part of a strategic planning workshop on the impact of the economic crisis over employment conditions and challenges faced by unions.
ICEM Gen. Sec. Manfred Warda Indian trade union leaders
It was attended by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Phee Jungsun, ICEM Materials Officer and Asia-Pacific Regional Contact Person.
Warda assured the Indian affiliates that they will receive sufficient resources to recruit contract and agency workers, as well as for the fight against HIV/AIDS. The ICEM is readying to staff a full-time project coordinator in India.
India’s ICEM affiliates agreed to select two delegates each to the Affiliates’ Council, with meetings held twice annually. A key emphasis will be improving the weak financial structures of most national level unions, with each affiliate promising to produce a report on its existing financial structure by December 2009.
Delegates also committed to organize a level of 10% of contract or agency workers into their unions, as well as to construct a new joint project proposal on union-building with a priority on contract and agency workers.
The Council also committed to explore ICEM affiliation with Indian petroleum unions, trade unions in the electric power sector, as well as those in the country’s burgeoning pharmaceutical sector.
While in India, Warda also attended a master training programme on HIV/AIDS awareness and education, sponsored by the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer. He said this particular project in India has dedicated and committed trade unionists, people “who are focused on bringing attention and then eradicating the HIV/AIDS pandemic on the Indian sub-continent.”