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The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) won a definitive judgment from Fair Work Australia on 24 June that grants the union right of entry to lunch rooms at Rio Tinto’s Alcan aluminum smelter in Bell Bay, Tasmania. The ruling ends months of legal wrangling and should serve as a precedent against employers from blocking legitimate union access to workers on job sites. 
 
On 1 July, marking the second anniversary of the Fair Work Act of 2009, which makes such access legitimate, AWU National Secretary Paul Howes and three AWU organizers triumphantly met with AWU members in lunch rooms at Alcan’s Bell Bay smelter, breaking Rio Tinto’s claim that such meetings had to in administrative areas, generally parts of worksites where surveillance and management intimidation is greater. 
 
The 550-worker Alcan smelter has been a test case in Australia over right of entry under a balanced Fair Work Act, a law that reversed many of the management rights provisions in the former Conservative government’s WorkChoices Act. (See prior <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4314-" type="internal">ICEM Bell Bay article</a> here.) It also stands as a major crossing of a threshold that will lead to full enterprise bargaining between AWU and Alcan. 
 
The AWU, which counts a majority of Alcan workers at Bell Bay as members, also used this Fair Work Australia decision to re-boot an advertising campaign aimed at recruitment of non-union Rio workers to the union fold. The ad campaign, which first ran in March, states that process operators at other, unionized Australian aluminum plants, namely Alcoa’s, are paid up to A$20,000 per year more than operators at Bell Bay. 
 
The AWU said it would use the decision to meet union members in similar surroundings at Alcan worksites in Gladstone (Boyne Island) and Yarwun, Queensland. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/AUSTRALIA AWU - Paul Howes.jpg" width="129" height="160"/>
Paul Howes
“Make no mistake, the bullies at Rio Tinto are losing the stranglehold they once had over their workforce,” said Howes in an Australian newspaper report. “The decision is highly symbolic of that, and I know it will be a crushing embarrassment for the company.” 
 
That decision, FWA Case 3878, found Alcan’s insistence on a conference room inside an administration building was not reasonable. It stated such meetings there meant workers had to travel 8-15 minutes longer from work stations, and this was insufficient time to meet with AWU representatives during average break times. 
 
Fair Work Australia’s ruling also rejected Alcan’s claim that the meal rooms closer to work areas were too small for such lawful meetings under the Fair Work Act and that worker-union discussions would disrupt other workers in the break areas. 
 
Rio Tinto Alcan said it disagrees with the decision, but this time will not appeal the Bell Bay right of entry ruling. The company said the AWU had made some 20 visits to meet with union members in conference rooms, and it made note of the fact that the 24 June ruling had found that the company did not intimidate or hinder workers from meeting with the AWU in the conference rooms. 
 
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Secretary Jeff Lawrence said the Bell Bay decision “sends a positive message to other employers that they must respect fundamental workers’ rights to collective bargaining and union membership.”

Australia: AWU Wins Correct Access to Rio Tinto’s Alcan Smelter

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ICEM’s Turkish affiliate Selüloz-Is, Pulp, Paper and Products Workers’ Union has been picketing in front of the plant of Form Mukavva Ambalaj Sanayi ve Ticaret Ltd.Şti located in Torbali, close to the country’s third biggest city Izmir. The Selüloz-Is picket-line is in protest over the dismissals of sixteen union members by the Turkish-based cardboard packaging company Form Mukavva following recent successful organising drives of the union which lasted several months.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.selusoc is turkey.jpg" width="211" height="160" alt=""/>
Selüloz-Is applied to the Ministry of Labour on 9 May 2011 for the authorisation documentation showing that the union organises more than the legally-required 50% of workers at the workplace. The Ministry sent the authorisation paper, confirming the union’s majority. At the time of the application to the Ministry, Selüloz-Is had much more than the legally required minimum 50% registered union members. But when the management received the paper from the Ministry, they first filed a case at local labour court claiming that the union did not hold the required legal majority to become a bargaining partner, a common tactic by employers in Turkey for union de-recognition, subsequently 16 pioneering members of Selüloz-Is were kicked out on 20 June 2011. Since then Selüloz-Is has conducted industrial action calling for the reinstatement of those dismissed workers and for union recognition. The action is receiving wide support from the families of workers and the local community. 
 
“The reason for the dismissal of our members was that they enjoyed trade union rights guaranteed by the country’s constitution” said Ergin Alşan, President of Selüloz-Is. “We vehemently protest dismissals of our members because of their joining our union. We clearly announce that our struggle will continue until our members are reinstated” added Alşan.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.selulozis president Ergin Alsan.png" width="146" height="110" alt=""/>
President Ergin Alşan
In his letter to Yılmaz Mineli, Owner and General Director of Form Mukavva, the ICEM General Secretary urged the company that sixteen dismissed workers must be immediately reinstated without delay. “This targeted and systematic attack by your management to block your employees from exercising their right to organise and bargain collectively will cause much anger. We expect the hindrance of union rights at Form Mukavva Ambalaj in Turkey to be solved without further intervention” added Warda. 
 
ICEM’s <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/65.ICEM.Form%20Mukavva%20Ambalaj.Turkey.27June.pdf" type="internal">protest letter</a> can be found here. Support letters to Selüloz-Is can be sent to <a href="mailto:selulozis@selulozis.org.tr">selulozis@selulozis.org.tr</a>.

Turkey’s Selüloz-Is struggles for recognition at Form Mukavva

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As with CEPPWAWU, the National Union of Metalworkers' of South Africa (NUMSA) has today begun strike action following a failure of negotiations with the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA). NUMSA has lowered its demand for a 20 per cent salary increase, to 13 per cent, however SEIFSA only offered 7 per cent, and refused to seriously negotiate the other key NUMSA demand for labour brokers to be banned in all companies with NUMSA members employed. 
 
Further NUMSA demands include a two-year wage agreement, as opposed to three years sought by employers, a one-day medical test for all workers, a five-day family responsibility leave per occurrence, and a 20 per cent night shift allowance. 
 
Talks between NUMSA and the Metal and Engineering Industry Sectors Bargaining Council ended on Thursday with a certificate of non-resolution being issued, paving the way for a strike. 
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The indefinite mass countrywide action is likely to include upwards of 300,000 workers. David Carson, executive director of SEIFSA, responded to impending strike action on Thursday, declaring 48 hours’ notice before initiating lockouts at various firms. 
 
Strikers convened at the Workers’ Library in Johannesburg from 9am today. Led by NUMSA General Secretary Irwin Jim and the general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), Zwelinzima Vavi, workers marched to submit a memorandum at Metal Industries House on Anderson Street in Johannesburg. 
 
Demonstrations also took place in Port Elizabeth, Cape Town and East London. A march in Northern Cape will take place tomorrow. 
 
Employer’s regressive demands in the failed negotiations included protecting their right to outsource work via labour brokers, introducing incredibly low entry level salaries, increasing the working week from 40 hours to 45, and exempting companies with fewer than 50 employees from many of their responsibilities towards workers.

South African Metalworkers' Strike

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With collective bargaining set to resume in two weeks time, Honeywell Inc. continues to place the residents of Metropolis, Illinois, in the US at risk by operating a uranium conversion plant with inexperienced scab workers. On 28 June 2010, Honeywell Inc. ruthlessly locked 228 American steelworkers off their jobs and nine days ago, on 25 June, those union members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669, together with 800 supporters, held a one-year anniversary rally in the Metropolis town square. 
 
The mood at the 25 June rally was somber and angry due to Honeywell’s economic stranglehold on workers’ lives. It was also defiant because the company has dared to risk the safety and well-being of 6,400 residents of this Ohio River city. 
 
When the lockout began, Honeywell assured the union that it would not operate the plant. The company reversed itself a month into the lockout, and now has exhibited the same disrespect in collective negotiations by rescinding contract provisions immediately after agreeing to them. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.honeywell.jpg" width="243" height="160" alt=""/>
In Metropolis, Honeywell mills yellow-cake uranium into uranium hexafluoride (UF6) that is frozen and then sold to companies for nuclear power applications. For the past nine months, Honeywell has been using scabs provided by a contractor to do this dangerous work. The results show in Honeywell’s environmental and health and safety record. 
 
At the 25 June mobilisation, workers and community members took notice once again to the dangers an outside workforce brings to their city: on 22 June, the US Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) levied 17 serious workplace safety violations against the company and its scab workers. 
 
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have also cited Honeywell with major violations since the lockout began in June 2010. Three months ago, Honeywell pleaded guilty and was sentenced by the US government to a fine of US$11.8 million for knowingly storing hazardous waste without a permit. 
 
“You begin to wonder about Honeywell’s credibility when you consider the nearly US$12 million in federal fines Honeywell was forced to pay this past March for violations cited by the EPA,” said Local 7-669 President Darrell Lillie. 
 
The OSHA violations issued in late June stem from a 22 December 2010 release of hydrogen fluoride (HF) vapors. (See <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USW%20reacts%20to%20latest%20federal%20safety%20citations%20at%20Honeywell.pdf" type="internal">USW Local 7-669 release</a>.) Honeywell refused OSHA's right to conduct its inspection with an employee representative despite the OSHA inspectors holding a federal warrant to do so.  
 
Honeywell put the city of Metropolis and Massac County, Illinois, at risk just weeks into the lockout when it decided to operate the workplace. On 5 September 2010, two days after the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission unbelievably gave approval for Honeywell to re-start the final two steps of a four-step uranium hexafluoride converting process, Metropolis was shook by a loud boom. 
 
Inside the plant, accumulated hydrogen reacted with fluorine gas during a venting process, causing the boom. Fortunately, the accident occurred in a non-regulated area of operation, meaning away from the handling of yellow cake uranium. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.honeywell safety matters.jpg" width="131" height="214" alt=""/>
For workers and community supporters who gathered on 25 June, these incidents have become a daily reminder of the threats posed by a hugely profitable company as it unnecessarily attempts to spiral downward work terms on a skilled and dedicated workforce. 
 
To be sure, USW Local 7-669 and Honeywell would already have a new labour contract and experienced workers would be back on the job if it had not been for the company reneging on a deal. In bargaining on 6 June, the two sides reached a compromise and a tentative agreement was imminent. Honeywell’s negotiators said it would draft the agreed-upon language and formally present it the next day in talks. 
 
But on 7 June, the company withdrew the proposed agreement from the day before that would maintain overtime pay after eight and 12 hours worked, and returned to its original and regressive proposal of time-and-a-half pay only after 40 hours had been worked. Local 7-669’s bargaining team already had made compromises to end the lockout. But the bad-faith reversal meant Honeywell was not ready for the lockout to end. 
 
The effect was another insult aimed at the community and at steelworkers of Local 7-669, who most assuredly will return – perhaps soon – to their jobs but with a bitter taste in their mouths about all things Honeywell. 
 
On Friday, 1 July, the two sides agreed to resume bargaining on 19-20 July. 
 
The overtime issue is now paramount. Other issues to be resolved, but not considered deal threatening, are company insistence that workers who take Family and Medical Leave under the US federal statute, must concurrently take vacation leave; a different pension pan for future new hires; and company-paid meal allowance for staff who work overtime hours. 
 
At the Saturday, 25 June rally, USW District 7 Director Jim Robinson headlined the event. He and steelworkers and retirees from Chicago and northern Indiana travelled seven hours on buses to support Local 7-669. The ICEM calls on Honeywell to stop its hazardous conduct in America’s heartland, and to reach satisfactory terms with USW Local 7-669.

Honeywell Threatens Safety by Extending Lockout of USW Members 

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"Solidarity and Equal Opportunities: Principles of Trade Union Networks” was the motto of the second meeting of this kind conducted by ICEM’s Brazilian affiliate CNQ-CUT, the National Confederation of Chemical Workers which took place on 15-16 June, through the support of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), at the facilities of Sao Paulo Glass Workers’ Union in Praia Grande, with participation of more than 60 union representatives from 24 companies. 
 
The meeting was supported and attended by ICEM, CUT, Solidarity Center AFL-CIO, FETQUIM, Social Observatory Institute (ISO) and DIEESE. 
 
The opening session of the event was marked with a broad debate on the role of union networks in national and international solidarity in the chemical industries. ICEM’s Regional President Sergio Novais highlighted the importance of the meeting and the need for unification of the sectors. Participants dynamically discussed their expectations of the meeting. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.cnq cut network.png" width="226" height="160"/>
Later in the meeting a delegates discussed various topics such as solidarity, participation of youth and women, network running, communication mechanisms, network models and statutes, decent work, and training policies. The presentation of research on the situation of trade union networks in the chemical sector with a detailed analysis on multinational participation and trade union activity conducted by ISO gave an overview to the participants. 
 
The participants were then divided into working groups to account for future referrals and deepen the discussions presented. Gender, collective bargaining, network funding, social dialogue, internal and external challenges, and strengthening the networks were among the topics that came up with important resolutions that should strengthen the fight in the upcoming period. 
 
At the end of the meeting participants evaluated discussions by saying "we have to act differently if we want a different life, what we did here was simply to think differently". Over the next couple of months, a report with the outcomes of the meeting will be publicised. 
 
“Networking is one of the major priorities of ICEM sector work. The work performed by our Brazilian comrades in the chemical industry is an excellent model for the rest of the world” said ICEM’s Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Kemal Özkan. “Our objective now is to widen this drive to the whole Americas region”.

Brazilian Chemical Workers Discuss Solidarity Through Union Networking

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Restructuring at three Colombian plants of the US-based glass packaging manufacturer Owens Illinois has led to a situation for members of ICEM-affiliated Sintravidricol being dangerously over-stretched to sustain the work load. 
 
There are almost no personnel replacements at the plants in Envigado, Cogua and Soacha, resulting in increased overtime, employees working without rest, and overexertion. Sintravidricol presented a study into the problem to management in September-November 2010, but the unsustainable situation has not been rectified. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/cololmbia.sintravidricol.jpg" width="95" height="85"/>
Instead of working towards a solution together with Sintravidricol, Owens Illinois local management has moved to fill holes with outsourced contract labour, making repeated unilateral decisions to outsource sections of the manufacturing process. These processes of outsourcing have forced workers at various stages of the production line to be relocated. Moving the work away from the directly employed workers, in areas such as machine repair and moulding, is in breach of the collective bargaining agreement. 
 
While Owens Illinois have continuously avoided the union’s pleas for dialogue, Sintravidricol has been forced into lodging a complaint at the Colombian Ministry of Labour. 
 
In further breach of the collective agreement, the company has ended the fixed-term contractual status of workers in the cold area, again causing health and safety concerns for remaining staff who have to cover the gaps, causing severe disruption of the operational process. 
 
Sintravidricol are calling on the international management of Owens Illinois to meet with them on a biannual basis, and are seeking avenues with the Colombian government. Social bargaining and mature systems of industrial relations must be employed by Colombian management at Owens Illinois, to work with Sintravidricol towards solving these dangerous issues for workers.

SINTRAVIDRICOL Faces Problems of Dangerous Overwork, Outsourcing at Owens Illinois, Colombia

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In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report on the UN General Assembly Declaration on HIV and AIDS, on a call by unions for more funding for HIV and AIDS, and more workplace activities and on efforts to find a vaccine or a cure to the disease. 
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UN Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS 
 
On 10 June, the High Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly adopted its outcome document, the new United Nations General Assembly Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS. 
 
The Declaration reaffirms the commitment of governments to fight the pandemic with time-bound targets laid down in the Millennium Development Goals, such as halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV by 2015. It commits governments to work toward the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015. Efforts must be accelerated to achieve the goal of universal access to antiretroviral treatment for those eligible based on WHO treatment guidelines by 2015. 
 
Governments also pledge to eliminate gender inequalities, gender-based abuse and violence, and increase the capacity of women and adolescent girls to protect them from the risk of HIV infection. The Declaration calls on young people to help lead global HIV awareness. 
 
Of particular importance to unions and the world of work is Article 85 of the Declaration which says: “Commit to mitigate the impact of the epidemic on workers, their families, their dependants, workplaces and economies, including by taking into account all relevant ILO conventions, as well as the guidance provided by the relevant ILO recommendations, including ILO Recommendation No 200, and call on employers, trade and labour unions, employees and volunteers to eliminate stigma and discrimination, protect human rights and facilitate access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.” 
 
While the Declaration recognises that funding has increased in the period from 2001 to 2010 over eight-fold to US$16 billion, it expresses concern that the global financial and economic crises have a negative impact on the HIV and AIDS response. 
 
(Source: UNAIDS and ILO/AIDS press releases) 
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Unions Call for Closing Funding Gap; More Workplace Action 
 
Trade unions told a key meeting of UNAIDS, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS that, along with real commitments from governments to fill the US$8 billion funding gap, the potential impact of workplace-based activities in tackling the pandemic is still not being realised. 
 
Unions called on the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board, the organisation’s governing body, to add its weight to the UN call (see article above) and ensure that work-related activities are a full part of the overall response to HIV and AIDS. 
 
The action plan by the ITUC and its Global Union partners stresses reduction of stigma and discrimination, increase in access to prevention services, scaling up of social protection services and access to treatment, care and support. 
 
(Source: ITUC press release, 24 June) 
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Toward an HIV Cure? 
 
On the 30th anniversary of the first medical reports of a new illness, articles appeared on new efforts to find a cure for the AIDS virus. 
 
The new head of the International AIDS Society (IAS), Bertrand Audoin, said that a cure is the only way to keep ahead of the HIV epidemic in the long term during tough financial times. He admitted, however, that it may take as long as 25 years to find a cure. 
 
IAS has convened a working group of international researchers to develop a strategy that might lead to a cure. The group is co-chaired by Professor Françoise Barre-Sinoussi, who won the Nobel Prize in 2008 for discovering HIV together with Luc Montagnier. 
 
Barre-Sinoussi writes in the International Herald Tribune that there is now robust evidence that early and highly active antiretroviral therapy can have a major impact on HIV transmission, demonstrating the “treatment as prevention” concept. AIDS is no longer the death sentence it was, but there now remains extreme uncertainty concerning the long-term sustainability of treatment access, especially in resource-limited settings, she writes. 
 
The Economist devotes its 4 June cover to the epidemic: “The end of AIDS? How 5 million lives have been saved, and a plague could be defeated.” The lead article gives this stark statistic: since the discovery of AIDS, 25 million people have died and another 34 million are infected. But the death rate is dropping. In 2005 the disease killed 2.1 million; in 2009 the number was down to 1.8 million. Inside, an article gives a detailed account of the present state of research. If a few people’s immune system controls the disease naturally, it suggests that a vaccine might be possible. And if antibodies have been discovered that neutralise the virus, that might form the basis of AIDS-clearing drugs. 
 
(Sources: BBC News, 1 June; International Herald Tribune, 4/5 June; and the Economist, 4 June.) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
South Africa: New Policy Saves Thousands of Babies from HIV 
 
The South African government has slashed the HIV transmission rate from pregnant mothers to their babies to merely 3.5%, potentially sparing some 67 000 babies from HIV infection. The success is due mainly to the Health Department vastly improving its programme for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV infection (PMTCT) from April last year. 
 
“It is possible to prevent all HIV-positive mothers from passing the virus on to their babies, but we now have to concentrate on the care of babies after birth,” said Precious Robinson, deputy director of government’s PMTCT programme, at the release of the new figures at the SA AIDS conference. 
 
Under the old treatment programme, mothers and their newborns were given one dose of the antiretroviral drug nevirapine. At best, this reduced the HIV transmission rate to 8.8%, according to small local surveys. But in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal, one in five HIV-positive mothers were still infecting their babies despite getting nevirapine. 
 
In order to save babies, the PMTCT treatment programme was prioritised. From last April, the Health Department advised that all pregnant women with HIV are given the ARV called AZT from 14 weeks of pregnancy and three ARVs during labour (nevirapine, tenofovir, and 3TC). If a pregnant woman has a CD4 count of less than 350, she should be put onto triple therapy (three ARVs) within two weeks of getting her CD4 test results. Newborn babies are now given nevirapine syrup for as long as their mothers are breastfeeding them, or for six weeks if not they are not breast-fed. 
 
(Source: <a href="http://www.health-e.org.za">www.health-e.org.za</a>, 9 June) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
‘Red Card’ to Keep Children Free from HIV 
 
Captains of national football teams competing in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011 soccer championship in Germany are signing up to the Give AIDS the Red Card appeal in support of a global plan to eliminate new HIV infections among children by 2015. The Give AIDS the Red Card appeal, which was launched by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) one year ago at the FIFA 2010 Men’s World Cup in South Africa, uses the power and outreach of football to unite the world around stopping new HIV infections in children. 
 
Every day more than 1,000 babies are born with HIV. However, with access to HIV counselling and testing for pregnant women and their partners, and treatment when needed, the risk of transmission can be brought down to less than 5%. 
 
On signing the pledge, team captains appeal to football players and fans across the world to “celebrate life and support the global campaign to prevent mothers from dying and babies from becoming infected with HIV.” 
 
(Source: UNAIDS press release, Geneva, 24 June) 
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Websites of Global Fund County Coordinating Mechanisms (CCM) 
 
According to research conducted by Aidspan, at least 20 CCMs have established their own websites. Countries with CCM websites where the ICEM cooperates on HIV/AIDS include: 
<a href="http://www.india-ccm.org ">India</a> (Language: English) 
<a href="http://ccm-mauritius.org ">Mauritius</a> (Language: English) 
<a href="http://ccmnigeria.org ">Nigeria</a> (Language: English) 
<a href="http://www.gf.or.tz ">Tanzania</a> (Language: English) 
 
The information available varies considerably from one website to another, with the India site being by far the most comprehensive. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 149 of 8 June. GFO is a free service of Aidspan www.aidspan.org; to receive GFO send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
News from Global Unions 
 
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF – <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a>) published the fifth issue of Agenda, its yearly magazine dedicated to HIV and AIDS. Agenda features, among other articles, case studies from ITF affiliates, strategies to fight HIV and AIDS at the workplace, and a new study on the civil aviation sector which reveals workers’ exposure to HIV infection, as well as stigma and discrimination. 
 
In the ITF HIV/AIDS updates 108 and 109 of 1 June and 15 June, respectively, articles can be found on peer education for civil aviation workers in Ecuador, a life skill education programme on HIV and AIDS in Indonesia organised by the Indonesia Seafarers’ Union, and the critical role the Transport and Dock Workers’ Union at Mumbai Port is playing in the implementation of a workplace policy on HIV and AIDS. 
 
The June Newsletter of the Swedish Workplace HIV and AIDS Programme (SWHAP), jointly run by the International Council of Swedish Industry (NIR) and the Swedish Industrial and Metalworkers’ Union (IF Metall), reports on a range of peer educators and other HIV and AIDS programmes in East and Southern Africa. SWHAP focuses on the response to HIV and AIDS at Swedish related workplaces. 
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Five Years Ago: From the July 2006 Issue (No. 10) 
 
The first issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin was published in October 2005. In current issues, we refer to an article from the same month five years ago and reflect on developments. 
 
In the July 2006 issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin, we reported on the first seminar on HIV and AIDS and the workplace organised by ICEM affiliates in Colombia in cooperation with UNAIDS and the Ministry of Social Protection. 
 
We also reported on the concern the ICEM affiliate in Mongolia expressed about the increase in HIV infections. In a report to the ICEM Asia and Pacific Regional Committee, the Mongolia Mining and Energy Union gave an account of the recent increase in HIV prevalence in the country. Despite the still very low prevalence rate, the potential for a further increase due to unsafe sex, high infection rates among migrant workers and mobile traders, and lack of education among young people is high. It will be recalled that, with the help of the Japanese affiliates, the ICEM later initiated an HIV/AIDS programme in Mongolia. 
 
The article devoted to the United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS stated that unlike the 2001 UN General Assembly Session on HIV/AIDS, relatively few world leaders attended this meeting which took place in New York from 29 May to 2 June, 2006. Civil society organisations criticised the final declaration. Difference over prevention strategies, such as abstinence and condom use, intellectual property rights and the naming of vulnerable groups have resulted in a weaker declaration and in serious omissions. In deference to Muslim and conservative Latin and Vatican opposition, the Declaration refers only to “vulnerable groups” at risk for infection without naming sex workers, homosexuals, or intravenous drug users as in need of particular attention. Civil society also noted an insufficient commitment to women’s rights. Most of these deficiencies seem to have been removed from the new Political Declaration (see first article in this issue). 
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This ICEM HIV-AIDS Newsletter – How to Subscribe 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an email to <a href="mailto:press@icem.org">press@icem.org</a>. Please put “subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin” in the subject line.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 70, July 2011

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The ICEM conducted a seminar entitled “Modern Occupational Health and Safety Management in the Mining Industry,” in Tbilisi, Georgia, on 4-8 July. The seminar was facilitated with the financial support of the ILO through its Moscow branch, and included the participation of ILO specialists. 
 
Representatives of ICEM affiliates in Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, as well as respective national trade union centres, were brought together with trade union leaders responsible for workers’ safety and health. 
 
ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, was the central topic. ILO Conventions 187 and 155 on occupational health and safety, and their related Recommendations were also studied by participants. In-depth discussions were conducted over the systematic and preventive approach of the ILO, particularly in the mining industry, and risk assessment and implementation of state standards for enterprises were studied. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.Georgia mine safety.jpg" width="354" height="159"/>
At the opening session, Confederation of Trade Unions of Georgia President Irakli Petriashvili, took the floor. He noted the relevance of the chosen topic, as well as the importance of the realisation of such a project in Georgia. As before, the relationship between unions and the government remain strained, he said, and there is no social dialogue. Most importantly, there is no legal basis for the adoption of necessary documents concerning labour protection. 
 
Petriashvili thanked international trade union representatives for their participation, which would again pressure the Georgian government to respect the national trade unions and their struggle for workers’ rights. 
 
Especially significant was involvement in discussions from representatives of ICEM affiliated unions in Armenia and Azerbaijan. The trade unions in these countries are working closely with their governments and employers. Armenia ratified Convention 176 back in 1999, while Azerbaijani participants reported a good situation for workers in the mining industry. In Georgia, there is no possibility of ratification of ILO Convention 176 in the foreseeable future, due to a total lack of dialogue between unions and the government. 
 
The seminar was attended by the ICEM Representative for Central and Eastern Europe, Anatoly Surin, and ICEM Health, Safety, Sustainability Officer, Brian Kohler. From the ILO, Viking Husberg, Specialist in Occupational Safety, and Oksana Gerasimova, Occupational Safety Coordinator of ILO Moscow took part. Also participating was Martin Hahn, Chief Specialist of the ILO responsible for the mining industry.

ICEM, ILO Conduct Mine Safety Seminar in Tbilisi, Georgia

Dear Mr. President, 
 
On behalf of 45 million industrial workers represented by the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) we are writing to you to express our serious concern with the situation in Mangystau Province, Kazakhstan. 
 
We have been informed that oil workers of Karazahnbasmunaigaz had to work in harmful conditions. After numerous attempts to settle the issue with the employers with no results oil workers decided to go on strike in May 2011 demanding the employer to improve working conditions and pay additional compensation for the work in bad conditions. Workers of Uzenmunaigaz and other operations in the region joined the strike later on. Unfortunately instead of engaging in good faith negotiations with the workers the employers recurred to tactics of pressure. This led to the aggravation of the social situation in the region. 
 
To our knowledge, the oil workers’ strike resulted in numerous acts of repression. 
 
On August 8 Natalia Sokolova, a union lawyer, was sentenced to six year imprisonment for alleged offence of “inciting social hatred”. During her one week trial, the judge allowed neither testimonies of defense, nor evidence by independent experts. 
 
A number of other workers and activists involved in the strike were also accused of participation in illegal protests and spent some time in prison and/or were ordered to pay substantial fines. Hundreds of workers were fired. 
 
On July 8 and 10 workers’ rally in Aktau was stormed by riot police. The participants of the rally were violently beaten. 
 
The situation in the region was aggravated by a number of horrendous murders. 
 
On August 2 Zhalsylyk Turbaev, 28-year old drill operator and a union activist, was murdered right at his workplace, his skull was broken. 
 
On August 24 Zhansaule Karabalaeva, 18-year old daughter of the president of the union committee at Uzenmunaigaz, was found dead on the outskirts of Zhanaosen. She received multiple knife wounds; her skull was broken, her jaw was crushed. 
 
Oil workers and their family members are frequently beaten by thugs. Every day workers also receive death threats. 
 
Mr. President, we believe that human rights issues are one of your central concerns. In 2010 Kazakhstan took the presidency in the OSCE. At the OSCE summit in Kazakhstan, Astana Commemorative Declaration was adopted, once again reinstating the commitment of OSCE members to human rights. In the word and spirit of this declaration, as well as the Constitution of Kazakhstan and international standards, we urge you to start immediate investigation of the facts of persecution and violence in Mangystau province, and take all the necessary measures to stop the suffering of the workers. 
 
Yours faithfully, 
 
 
Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary 
Jyrki Raina, IMF General Secretary

ICEM-IMF Letter to Nursultan Nazarbaev, President of Republic of Kazakhstan

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="110" height="54"/>
International pressure – both inside and out of Georgia – caused a change of course last week by police and political authorities in the aftermath of belligerent 15 September strike-breaking at Euroasian Steels in Kutaisi. Not only were over 30 sacked workers offered their jobs back, but police questioned the Indian managing director and two aides at Euroasian, also known as Hercules Steel, on 29 September.
The next day the top boss was sacked. 
 
Meanwhile, three strike leaders – Emilo Gumberidze, Irakli Iobidze, and Malkhaz Gogiava – who were jailed by police on bogus charges were released after serving ten-day sentences in the Kutaisi jail. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4673-Georgian-Trade-Union-Leaders-Jailed-for-Passing-Drug-Test" type="internal">ICEM report here</a>.) 
 
They immediately called Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers’ Union President Tamazi Dolaberidze and pledged their continued support to the union. On 30 September, the new acting managing director of Hercules personally called each of the three to offer them their jobs back. The reversal gave Hercules metalworkers renewed momentum following the strike’s crushing and that registered both with Georgian workers and about 130 Indian workers employed at the rolling mill.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1109.georgia.police.jpg" width="275" height="160"/>
Georgia's Police Break Strike in Kutaisi, 15 September 
Several points of global and internal civil pressure caused deep embarrassment to Georgia. There also was high-level diplomatic pressure involved, especially after an international delegation that included the ICEM and top leaders from Poland’s Solidarnoşç exposed the fact that the Indian workers at Hercules may be treated worse than anyone else. 
 
They live eight to a room in a dormitory adjacent to the mill, their passports were being head by the senior boss, and their salaries are sent back to India. It is believed that the top boss, Raji Kumar Sureika, was sacked because he was holding the passports. 
 
The strike last month by 200 Hercules metalworkers was sparked after the Metallurgical, Mining, Chemical Union gained written support from a majority of the Georgian workers and then requested labour-management dialogue. After several weeks, the request was ignored and the strike started, including hunger strikes by four workers in front of the mill. 
 
Two days into the strike, police violently broke it up and literally <a href="/en/4-Chemicals-Pharmaceuticals/4667-ICEM-Scorns-Blatant-Police-Repression-in-Putting-Down-Georgian-Metal-Strike" type="internal">forced workers</a> back to their jobs. Workers are angry that the two-year-old start-up mill has no salary schedule, no health and safety plan, and pays no overtime. Following last week’s good news, the ICEM-affiliated Metallurgical, Mining, Chemical Union again called on Hercules to enter peaceful, construction negotiations. 
 
The ICEM commends the leadership of the Georgia Trade Union Confederation (GTUC), and Tamazi Dolaberidze, for mobilising to organise, and the Global Union Federation pledges to remain active on the global front over the ever-reocurring abuse of trade union rights in Georgia.

Calm Restored as Georgian Metalworkers Rehired

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