18 July, 2011
The second union-wide Conference for the Electric Power Industry was held in Boston USA on 12-13 July, with 60 delegates from 19 countries attending. The ICEM conference was aptly hosted by the Utility Workers’ Union of America (UWUA), which turned out delegates from several electric power branch unions.
Delegates adopted a strong statement condemning recent trends in electric power that prioritise profit-making at the expense of the public good. The statement said unions must continue to promote democratic energy policies, and noted, “Increased globalisation in the Electric Power sector necessitates increased international contacts between unions in the parent multinational country with unions in the countries subject to new investments by these companies.” (The full ICEM Electric Power Conference conclusions can be viewed here.)
Denryoku Soren’s Manabu Sasaki
A highlight of the event was a thorough presentation on the work done to save the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant station in Japan following the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. Members of the ICEM-affiliated Federation of Electric Power Related Industry Workers’ Union of Japan, or Denryoku Soren, gave heart-rendering descriptions of their work to cool down reactors after the tsunami cut power to the northeast Japan power station.
The union’s policy officer, Takashi Wakasugi, who hails from Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), said that no one has died from radiation exposure at Fukushima, although two young workers were trapped and killed by the tsunami in the turbine building basement of the 4th reactor. That reactor was on a maintenance shutdown at the time. Eleven Denryoku Soren members and another 180 family members lost their lives away from the plant and over 6,000 homes of union members have been destroyed.
NUM Education Chairperson Helen Diatile Inspired Delegates for Greater Solidarity
Since mid-March, the union has dispatched some 3,500 volunteers from Denryoku Soren in aid and rescue missions. The Japanese unionists, including Kiyoaki Kotabe and Manabu Sasaki, stressed that the natural disaster also affected coal-fired power stations in Fukushima Prefecture, including the Haramachi power plant where some workers were killed. Nuclear power, Sasaki said, accounts for less than 30% of Japan’s power mix. With total electric supply decreasing to 55% after the twin natural disasters, the bulk of the loss came from outages at coal- oil- and gas-fired plants.
The unionists were critical of Japan’s current government administration for laying blame on the utilities and on workers. They said the government insists on imposing indemnity on the affected utilities, and has submitted a bill to Parliament that ultimately would encourage layoffs of Denryoku Soren members and the lowering of working conditions to the bare minimum.
“We at Denryoku Soren will continue to fight to stabilise the situation at Fukushima Daiichi,” stated Sasaki, the union’s Social and Industrial Policy Officer. “We will face all predicaments bravely to secure the safety of the Japanese people and by all and any means, we will restore and revitalize East Japan, which suffered devastating damage.
“What has supported us while we fight for this has been the strong solidarity by the member unions of the ICEM.”
UWUA President Mike Langford
The Electric Conference also included panels on campaigning and on networking, with the latter including the ICEM’s Asia-Pacific Electric Power Workers’ Network by Japanese Affiliates’ Federation (JAF) General Secretary Yoshio Sato, the Nuclear Workers’ Network by David Shier, and an inspired presentation by Ndlela Radebe of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on the newly created Southern Africa Energy Network.
Campaign presentations were made by UWUA Local 389 President Dave Leonardi on the successful UWUA-ICEM campaign to achieve a first collective agreement with waste-to-energy company Covanta in the US, and on privatisation fight-backs by David Black of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees (COPE) in British Colombia and by Saffet Asiksou and Huseyln Sonmezoglu of the Turkish Electricity Authority of Cyprus Workers’ Union (El-Sen).
UWUA President Mike Langford also directly addressed the “virus” of the US that is slowly permeating both developed and developing nations of the world, and said trade unions must rise up to unite against such “anti-people, anti-society practices.”