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<img height="113" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0705ICEM2007Congresslogo-100.jpg" width="100"/> 

Provisional Programme for the Fourth ICEM World Congress
Saturday 17 November 2007  
10.00 – 17.00 <a href="/en/?id=184&doc=2429&la=EN" type="internal">Women’s Conference 
</a> 
Sunday 18 November 2007 
09.30 – 17.00 <a href="/en/?id=184&doc=2429&la=EN" type="internal">Women’s Conference</a> 
 
Monday 19 November 2007  
09.00 – 17.30 Presidium 
19:00 Dinner for ICEM Presidium Members and accompanying persons 
 
Tuesday 20 November 2007   
09:00 - 17:00 Executive Committee Meeting 
19.00 Dinner for ICEM Executive Committee Members and accompanying persons 
 
Wednesday 21 November 2007   
09:00 - 17:00 <a href="/en/?id=184&doc=2428&la=EN" type="internal">Contract and Agency Labour Conference</a> 
10:00 - 16:00 <a href="/en/?id=184&doc=2441&la=EN" type="internal">Meeting of the ICEM Pulp and Paper Section</a> 
17.00+ Meeting of Congress Credentials Committee 
 
Thursday 22 November 2007   
10.00 Opening of Congress 
12:00 WFIW Integration 
17.30 Congress Sessions close 
19.00 Dinner 
 
Friday 23 November 2007   
09:00 Congress Sessions continue 
17:30 Congress Sessions close 
19.00 Dinner 
 
Saturday 24 November 2007   
09:00 Final Congress Sessions 
14:00 Congress Closure 
15:00-17:00 New ICEM Presidium meets 
<img height="29" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMCongresslogo50.jpg" width="25" align="absMiddle"/>  <a href="/en/?id=184&doc=2430&la=EN" type="internal">Click here for a more detailed Draft Congress Agenda 
(22-24 November)</a>  <img height="29" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMCongresslogo50.jpg" width="25" align="absMiddle"/> 
 
Departure of Delegations
 
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4th ICEM World Congress - 2007 
Practical general information 

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1. Congress Venue 
 
Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre 
60 New Rachadapisek Road, Kongtoey 
Bangkok 10110 
Thailand 
Tel: +66/2229-3000 
Fax: +66/2229-3392 
Website: <a href="http://www.qsncc.com">www.qsncc.com</a> 
2. Timetable 
Congress Registration will be every day, from Monday 19 November until Wednesday 21 November, from 08:00 to 17.00. Last minute Congress Registration will be on Thursday 22 November, from 08:00 to 10:00.
3. Transportation during congress 
 
A skytrain and a metro line are disserving the congress venue from all hotels block booked by the ICEM for the congress. The ICEM will provide tickets for delegates during the 3 days of Congress (22, 23 and 24 November). Those tickets will be available on site upon registration.
4. Social Activities 
 
Thursday 22 November – a dinner will be organised for congress delegates and accompanying persons. The information on the venue and other arrangements will be distributed at the time of the congress. 
 
Friday 23 November – a gala dinner will be organised for congress delegates and accompanying persons. The venue for the dinner will be the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre. Further information on the arrangements will be distributed at the time of the congress. 
5. Tourism Information 
 
An information desk with tourism info, including on tours will be available on the congress site. 
6. Currency 
 
The Monetary unity of Thailand is the baht (THB). 
Exchange rate in early 2007 is: 1€ = +/- 44 THB. 
There is no black market. Changing Euros can be done, without any problems, everywhere, even in traveller’s checks. For European countries, it is not necessary to bring dollars. 
7. Climate in Thailand 
Thailand's climate is tropical, high both in temperature and humidity, and dominated by monsoons. From November to the end of February the climate is much less trying with a cooling North East breeze and a reduction in the humidity level. This is also the main tourist season, and the best time to visit Thailand. 
The north and north-east are generally cooler than Bangkok in winter and hotter in summer. In the far north, around Mae Hong Son temperatures can occasionally drop as low as 20C. 
8. Time 
 
The standard time zone for Bangkok is GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) + 7 hours. 
9. Visa for Thailand 
 
Visa on Arrival: 
 
- According to the Interior Ministerial Announcements, passport holders from 20 countries may apply for visas at the immigration checkpoints for the purpose of tourism for the period of not exceeding 15 days. 
 
- The applicant must possess means of living expenses at the amount of 10,000 Baht per person and 20,000 Baht per family accordingly. 
 
- The applicant must present full paid ticket which is usable within 15 days since the date of entry 
 
- Visa on arrival is provided at 32 designated international checkpoints and applicants should submit the application form duly filled out and to which his/her recent photograph (4 x 6 cm) is attached. The application fee is 1,000 Baht. 
 
- Visitors who enter the Kingdom with Visa on Arrival generally cannot file an application for extension of stay except in special cases such as illness which prevents them from travelling, etc. They can submit an application at the Office of Immigration Bureau, Immigration Division 1, Soi Suan Plu, South Sathorn Road, Bangkok 10120. Tel. 02 287-3127 or 02 287-3101-10 ext. 2264-5 or at website <a href="http://www.immigration.go.th">http://www.immigration.go.th</a>. 
The list of 20 countries is as follows: 
 
1. Bhutan 
2. China 
3. Cyprus 
4. Czech Republic 
5. Estonia 
6. Hungary 
7. India 
8. Kazakhstan 
9. Latvia 
10. Liechtenstein 
11. Lithuania 
12. Maldives 
13. Mauritius 
14. Sultanate of Oman 
15. Poland 
16. Russia 
17. Saudi Arabia 
18. Slovakia 
19. Slovenia 
20. Ukraine 
 
Further information can be found on the website of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kingdom of Thailand: <a href="http://www.mfa.gov.th">www.mfa.gov.th</a>.
Visa not needed for the following countries: 
1. Australia 
2. Austria 
3. Belgium 
4. Brazil 
5. Bahrain 
6. Brunei 
7. Canada 
8. Denmark 
9. Finland 
10. France 
11. Germany 
12. Greece 
13. Hong Kong 
14. Iceland 
15. Indonesia 
16. Ireland 
17. Israel 
18. Italy 
19. Japan 
20. Korea 
21. Kuwait 
22. Luxembourg 
23. Malaysia 
24. Netherlands 
25. New Zealand 
26. Norway 
27. Oman 
28. Peru 
29. Philippines 
30. Portugal 
31. Qatar 
32. Singapore 
33. Spain 
34. South África 
35. Sweden 
36. Switzerland 
37. Turkey 
38. United Arab Emirates 
39. United Kingdom 
40. USA 
41. Vietnam 
10. Vaccination – Yellow Fever Certificate 
 
List of countries which are declared YELLOW FEVER INFECTED AREAS: 
 
- The Ministry of Public Health has issued regulations that applicants who have travelled from or through the countries which have been declared Yellow Fever Infected Areas must provide an International Health Certificate proving that they have received a Yellow Fever vaccination. 
 
- The International Health Certificate must be submitted together with the visa application form. The traveller will also have to present the said certificate to the Immigration Officer upon arrival at the port of entry in the Kingdom. As for those nationals of the countries listed below but who have not travelled from/through those countries, such a certificate is not required. However, they should possess concrete evidence showing that their domicile is not in an infected area so as to prevent unnecessary inconvenience. 
 
1. Angola 
2. Benin 
3. Bolivia 
4. Brazil 
5. Burkina Faso 
6. Burundi 
7. Cameroon 
8. Central Africa 
9. Chad 
10. Colombia 
11. Democratic Republic of Congo 
12. Congo 
13. Ivory Coast 
14. Ecuador 
15. Equatorial Guinea 
16. Ethiopia 
17. French-Guiana 
18. Gabon 
19. Gâmbia 
20. Ghana 
21. Guinea-Bissau 
22. Guinea 
23. Guyana 
24. Kenya 
25. Libéria 
26. Mali 
27. Mauritânia 
28. Niger 
29. Nigeria 
30. Panamá 
31. Peru 
32. Rwanda 
33. São Tome & Príncipe 
34. Senegal 
35. Sierra Leone 
36. Somalia 
37. Sudan 
38. Suriname 
39. Tanzania 
40. Togo 
41. Trinidad and Tobago 
42. Uganda 
43. Venezuela 
 
Further information can be found on the website of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kingdom of Thailand: <a href="http://www.mfa.gov.th">www.mfa.gov.th</a>.

4th ICEM World Congress - Agenda and Practical general information

A.G.Lukashenko 
President 
Republic of Belarus 
By fax: +375-17-226-06-10 
 
Brussels, 
18 June 2007 
 
Dear Mr. President, 
I am writing to you on behalf of the 20 million workers whom our International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) represents through its 384 affiliates in 125 countries of the world. 
 
We see the decision of the European Union to withdraw the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) benefits from Belarus, effective from June 21, 2007, solely as a result of your Government’s persistent disregard for internationally recognised labour standards and its systematic failure to comply with the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry of the International Labour Organisation. 
 
The Belarusian State Administration has had more than adequate time for implementing measures required to convince the international community of the seriousness of its declared intention to ensure freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining for all workers in Belarus. 
In reality, the measures taken by your Government proved to be largely cosmetic; the existing legal framework for trade union activities still allows for suppressive and discriminatory actions by managers and authorities who arbitrarily use it against members of independent trade unions; and the new Draft Law on Trade Unions equally does not guarantee genuine trade union rights and freedoms. 
 
We wholeheartedly support the independent trade unions and workers in Belarus and resent all attempts to lay the blame for the withdrawal of the GSP benefits at their door. The full responsibility for this decision of the European Union is borne by the Belarusian State Administration, and we believe that only expeditious and earnest implementation of the recommendations of the ILO Commission of Inquiry can form a credible basis for any future resolution of this situation. 
 
Sincerely Yours, 
 
Manfred Warda 
ICEM General Secretary 
 
Cc: 
S.S.Sidorskiy, Prime-Minister, Republic of Belarus 
L.P.Kozik, Chairman, Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus 
A.I.Jaroshuk, President, Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions

ICEM letter to Belarus President on GSP withdrawal

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
South Africa's mining industry is getting more dangerous, judging from a rash of deaths in June in the country's gold and platinum sectors. Overall, mining deaths in 2007 far outpace those occurring in preceding years, making a 2003 goal by the Chamber of Mines of achieving zero workplace deaths by 2013 difficult to imagine. 
 
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), ICEM's largest trade union affiliate in South Africa, believes mining houses are spending large sums to increase production in this period of high precious commodity pricing, but very little on safety prevention. 
<img height="100" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector.JPG" width="100"/>
A study done by a South African organisation, Bench Marks Foundation, cites an audit done by AngloPlatinum, a company hit with the most June mining deaths. The audit reveals that an AngloPlats review of its deaths in mining shows more emphasis is placed on establishing blame "rather than on identifying causes and instituting measures to prevent the occurrence of accidents." 
The world's largest producer of platinum, 75% owned by AngloAmerican, witnessed five June deaths in its South African operations, which caused the company to close its massive Rustenburg operations for seven days on 18 June in order to conduct a safety audit. 
 
AngloPlatinum is responsible for 17 deaths in South African mines so far in 2007. Twelve of those came at Rustenberg. That compares with a total of 19 in 2006, 17 of which came at Rustenburg.
AngloPlat's sister company, AngloGold Ashanti, has fared no better. Globally, in the first quarter of 2007, AngloGold experienced its worst quarter of mining deaths since 2004. Fourteen miners perished in the first three months of 2007, including nine in the company's South African gold operations. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthAfrica.png" width="250"/>
Rival Goldfields is responsible for ten mining deaths in South Africa so far in 2007. 
 
Last year, a total of 199 mining deaths were recorded in the country's mines, including 113 in gold operations and 40 in platinum. If the recent May-June spate of nearly 50 deaths continues, the 2007 death toll will far exceed those occurring in 2006. 
 
The NUM has formally called for an urgent tripartite meeting to resuscitate South Africa's Mining Health and Safety Summit in order to address the current deficiencies in mine safety. Even the Chamber of Mines, at its third annual health and safety meetings early in June, said that drastic action is needed now to curb the high level of mining deaths. 
 
The NUM endorsed the chamber's statement, but says mining houses must begin to "walk the talk." In the Bench Mark's study, commissioned by the three major platinum producers, AngloPlatinum, Impala, and Lonmin, the NGO said the dramatic increase in production levels is responsible for an adverse effect on safety. 
 
The chief researcher to the year-long study recommends that bonuses of top executives be linked closely to safety performances. 
<img height="161" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Senzeni.jpg" width="130"/>
NUM and ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana
NUM President Senzeni Zokwana said, "Workers feel let down by the state's judicial system since no employer has ever been hauled before a court of law in the circumstances in which people lose their lives, although legislation is clear on that." 
 
"Miners are losing their lives and limbs, while the majority of accidents are preventable," added NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni. The NUM insists that all parties concerned in South Africa, from the relevant governmental agencies to all levels of management inside the mining companies, give the matter of health and safety in mining the top priority it deserves.

2007 Mining Deaths Become Worrisome in South Africa

<img height="48" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="120"/>
Miners of the United Steelworkers (USW) in Canada are on strike at the Iron Ore Co. of Canada for better workplace protections and reductions to subcontracting. The strike, by 1,300 USW members at a mine and pellet plant in Labrador City, Newfoundland, and an export water facility at Sept-Iles, Quebec, also involves wages and benefits. 
 
Major mining house Rio Tinto owns 59% of Iron Ore Co. of Canada.
<img height="138" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Canada.png" width="300"/>
USW members in Labrador City, over 1,000 strong, walked out on 8 March, while port workers of another USW branch union joined the strike last week. The two sides have not held talks since the strikes began. 
 
Management forced the strike with an inadequate pay package, and refusal to address the contractors’ issue, a matter that has brought hundreds of grievances by maintenance staff and production workers alike. 
 
“The tipping point in this dispute included such fundamental issues as seniority rights,” stated USW District 6 Director Wayne Fraser. “It’s all about corporate control. Workers deserve to have their most basic rights respected.”
<img height="141" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0703WayneFraser.jpg" width="140" alt=""/>
USW Disrtict 6 Director Wayne Fraser
Just minutes after the strike deadline on 8 March, management slid a revised offer under the office door of the branch unions’ bargaining committee. The company did move some on wages, and dropped its unfettered right to contract out any job at the mine site and pellet plant. But it was too little to stop the strike. 
 
The two USW unions in Labrador City, Locals 5795 and 6731, have 500 grievances pending for arbitration. Many of these grievances involve work being performed by contractors, work that could be done by USW miners. Despite movement on the wage and benefit package, the company’s 8 March offer still falls short of what other mining companies in eastern Canada pay. 
 
“This fight is about recognizing the intrinsic value our members bring to this operation,” stated USW Local 5795 President George Kean. The year “2006 broke all production records and our members gave the company the biggest profit in its history.” 
 
Kean said employee morale is at an all-time low, citing a company survey of workers revealed that 87% of them felt they were not treated with respect and dignity. Management has turned a deaf ear to the survey. 
 
USW Locals 5795 and 6731, on 1 March, voted by 98% to strike. The 250 port and dock workers at Sept-Iles, represented by USW Local 9344, voted to strike on 14 March, also with a 98% ballot. 
 
The grievances and subcontracting issues date to 2004, when workers at the two locations undertook a 12-week strike to win a renewal labour agreement.

Work Issues, Subcontracting Cause Mining Strike at Canadian Rio Tinto Subsidiary

<img height="48" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="120"/>
A Unity Accord was developed 19-21 March in Canada for unions representing workers at Brazilian-based Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD). Last year, the giant Brazilian iron ore, coal, and metal mining company took over Canadian-based, the western world’s leading nickel producer. 
 
Signing the accord, which contains six priorities for the trade unions, were the United Steelworkers (USW) of Canada, host of the unity event in Sudbury, Ontario, and trade unions from Brazil, Mozambique, and New Caledonia. ICEM Vice President Ken Neumann, USW’s National Director for Canada, opened the conference.
<img height="157" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0605KenNeumann.jpg" width="140"/>
USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann 
The unions participating include the National Confederation for Workers in the Mineral Sector (CNTSM) and Sindi-Metals (CNM-CUT) of Brazil, the National Union of ConstructionWorkers (SINTICIM) of Mozambique, and Union des Syndicate d'Ouvriers et Employés de Nouvelle-Calédonie (USOENC) of New Caledonia, the largest mining union on the French territorial islands. They were joined by branch unions of the USW from five CVRD/Inco locations in Canada.
<img height="77" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USAUSW.jpg" width="140"/>
USW President Leo Gerard, a former miner at Inco in Sudbury, said the Unity Accord was not signed in an adversarial or confrontational manner. “When there are companies as big as CVRD, it is tremendously important that workers come together in solidarity and unity, in order to build on each other’s victories and to minimize each other defeats,” said Gerard at a press conference, as reported in the Sudbury Star newspaper. 
 
Added USW District Canadian District 6 Director Wayne Fraser, “As companies become more global, it’s no longer a matter of flag-waving for your union. You need to be a global union network, because you are dealing with a global, transnational company.” 
 
The six priorities of the CVRD Unity Accord include: stronger collective agreements; pushing for more capital expenditures to ensure job security in mining communities; safe and healthy workplaces, and environmentally sustainable operations; respecting the human rights within communities, including the right to organise and bargain collectively; full access from CVRD on acquisitions, mergers, or other reorganizations; and eliminating outsourcing and contract labour.

Union Mining Alliance Comes Together Around CVRD of Brazil

<img height="48" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="120"/>
A report issued by the Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA), an employers grouping, says that reversing the Howard government’s WorkChoices law related to individual work agreements will reduce mining productivity, and cost Australia A$6 billion in exports. 
 
But labour unions contest that assertion, claiming mining employers are “scaremongering” while anticipating that a victory by the Labour Party in federal elections this year will reverse Prime Minister John Howard’s radical changes to industrial relations law. The worst of those changes, called the Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs), or individual work pacts that replace enterprise agreements, took effect a year ago. 
 
The erroneous report, issued at the AMMA’s resources conference in Perth last week, states that 80% of all workers in the resource sector are on AWAs. It also falsely claims that AWAs have not been detrimental to workers’ employment conditions.
<img height="155" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0703GregCombet.jpg" width="120"/>
ACTU Sec. Greg Combet
“The AMMA’s arguments don’t stack up,” said Australian Council of Trade Unions Secretary Greg Combet. “The suggestion that getting rid of AWAs will hurt the economy is scaremongering, and all that we’re seeing is big business getting between the Howard’s government’s industrial relations laws.” 
 
Combet refuted the AMMA study by stating that the coal sector, which is overwhelmingly comprised of enterprise or collective labour agreements, has far outpaced productivity in metals mining over the past ten years. 
 
“We are opposed to AWAs for a very good reason,” said Combet. “They have been used to exclude people being represented by a union.”

Mining Bosses ‘Scaremongering’ to Preserve Australian Individual Work Agreements

<img height="48" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="120" alt=""/>
A scheduled strike was set to begin this morning, 26 March, by union members of Le Syndicat National des Agents du Secteur de l’Electricité (SYNASEG), ICEM’s electric affiliate in the Ivory Coast. The strike is against CIE, the country’s electricity operator and a subsidiary of French-based Bouygues Group. 
 
The dispute is over pay. SYNASEG and CIE last negotiated on 20 March, with officials of the Labour Ministry, Mines and Energy Ministry, and a representative of Ivory Coast’s work inspectorate mediating. When the company did not provide a response to the union’s ultimate proposal by late last week, the strike was called for early today. A meeting is scheduled for 15h00 today in Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast.
<img height="171" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/FrancoisYao.jpg" width="120" alt=""/>
SYNASEG Gen. Sec. François Yao
“We agreed to lower our salary demands from 25% to 15%,” stated SYNASEG Gen. Sec. François Yao. “We consider this our final offer.” 
 
CIE and government officials held a private meeting late last week on the dispute, but did not inform the union of the contents of that meeting, an obvious breach of common social dialogue. 
 
Besides a 15% salary hike for workers, SYNASEG is demanding 12% for supervisors. CIE’s did increase its salary proposal in talks prior to 20 March, but only to 7% for workers and 5% for supervisors.

Electric Workers Strike Set to Begin Today in Ivory Coast

<img height="48" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="120" alt=""/>
Another victory for workers in Iraq was won last week with major significance. A sit-in by street vendors in the southern city of Nasiriya produced a compromise by authorities in negotiations. Street vendors are represented by the Union of Unemployed in Iraq (UUI), part of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI). 
 
On 22 March, scores of street vendors staged a sit-in and protest aimed at municipal and occupational authorities, who previously have evicted the vendors under a “reconstruction plan of cities” dictum. Last week’s action forced negotiations with street vendor leaders, the UUI, and authorities. The compromise gives street vendors “an alternative location to set up their kiosks/carts on which they depend to support their families,” according to UUI Nasiriyah Branch President Almad Salem. 
 
“This agreement is a first-timer in the recent history of our class struggles with the governorate and will mobilise more of the exploited and oppressed to come forward in unified ranks around their real representatives in order to demand their rights,” he added.
<img height="165" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0703Iraq 1.jpg" width="220" alt=""/>
Iraqi street vendors' protest on 22 March 
Stated FWCUI Nasiriya Branch Head Ahmad abdel-Sattar, “Authorities did not move towards solving the problem or planning in any way to rid the hundreds of thousands of the unemployed from this decades’ old situation (of poverty). Moreover, they have deepened the crisis by dividing work opportunities among sectarian and political party groups. These authorities further exposed their irresponsibility when they announced their plan of eviction of all street vendors.” 
 
Last week’s breakthrough is only the initial victory in the long fight for Iraqi workers in their attempt to live and earn decent livings under dire and frightful circumstances. The FWCUI has issued a call to all the people of Nasiriyah to support the street vendors’ just and humane demands, and the ICEM supports that call to trade unions everywhere.

FWCUI in Iraq: Sit-in Action Moves Nasiriya Authorities to Respect Street Vendors

<img height="48" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="120" alt=""/>
The International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) is heading a global union campaign to draw attention to occupational cancer, the most common work-related cause of death. Titled “Occupational Cancer/Zero Cancer,” the campaign is endorsed by all Global Union Federations, as well as the ITUC, and contains materials and useful information for preventing cancer in the workplace. 
 
Those materials, and background information, can be found at <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/cancer">www.imfmetal.org/cancer</a>. 
 
An IMF cancer prevention guide, for instance, states that an occupational cancer death occurs once every 52 seconds. The IMF maintains that one in ten cancer cases can be prevented because that percentage, at the very least, is due to predictable workplace exposure. 
 
“Asbestos alone accounts for an estimated 100,000 deaths each year and yet there is not a worldwide ban on its use,” said IMF Gen. Sec. Marcello Malentacchi. The IMF says too little attention is given to preventing workplace hazards by employers and government regulators, and Malentacchi points to the fact that “only a small minority of countries have signed up to the ILO conventions on occupational cancer and asbestos.”

IMF Spearheads Global Campaign on Occupational Cancer

Trade union leaders from Guinea, who have been leading efforts to topple the corrupt regime of President Lansano Conté in the west African country, were in Brussels on 26-27 March, and they appealed to global trade unions to continue to apply pressure for democratic change there. 
 
The national centre leaders, which included the leader of ICEM’s mining union affiliate in Guinea, visited the ICEM on 27 March. They told of the continued impasse to dissolve the corrupt and authoritative government of Conté – despite the appointment of an acceptable prime minister – and they addressed the rampant poverty that has swallowed the resource-rich country, due primarily to that corruption. 
 
The three included: Rabiatou Sereh Diallo, General Secretary of the National Confederation of Workers of Guinea (CNTG); Dr. Ibrahima Fofana, General Secretary of the Trade Union of Workers of Guinea (USTG); and Yamodou Touré, General Secretary of the National Organisation of Free Trade Unions of Guinea (ONSLG), who also heads the National Union of Mine and Quarry Workers (SYNAMIC). 
<img height="253" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0703Guinea2.jpg" width="380"/>
From left to right: Ibrahima Fofana, Rabiatou Sereh Diallo, Manfred Warda and Yamodou Touré
Guinea’s trade unions have become the voice and courage for all of civil society as they led mass strikes against Conté and his military regime last year, and again in January and February of this year. In January, the three leaders were arrested for leading the three-week general strike, and the arrests were interlocked with direct negotiations with Conté, talks that did make modest progress toward democratic reform. 
Conté's presidential guards killed a total of 113 people during this year's crisis. 
 
The Brussels visit was made possible by the ITUC, and included a visit to the European Union’s Commission. 
 
At the ICEM, Rabi Diallo said the January-February general strike was only a partial success, and civil society is now waiting for new Prime Minister Lansana Kouyate to re-shape a government that will address the needs of the people. “The stumbling block is that the president is still in power,” she said. “The commitments we have gained have not been implemented, so our struggle continues. Nothing is a given yet.” 
 
Dr. Fofana added, “We have initiated the first step, that government must be responsible to the people. We took action, the state tried to stop us, but we have persevered.” Fofana and the others are calling for an international conference of trade union and civil society groups to be held in Guinea this year. The conference is intended to promote proper social dialogue inside the country, as well “as to show the whole world what is occurring in Guinea today,” according to Fofana. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Guinea.png" width="250"/>
Yamodou Touré said the two biggest obstacles facing workers in Guinea are corrupt bosses, and the need for overhaul and drastic revisions to labour code and collective labour agreements. The three trade union leaders specifically told ICEM of the problems in Guinea’s mining sector, where taxes that are charged to global companies end up in personal accounts of Conté and his cronies. 
 
The country holds roughly half of the world’s reserves of bauxite, the chief mineral in the manufacture of aluminium, and also is a significant producer of copper, gold, and diamonds. 
 
The trade unionists said Russian bauxite producer RUSAL is a real problem in Guinea. The company, which operates the Friguia alumina plant, as well as serving as the managing partner in a joint venture with Conté’s corrupt regime, called Compagnie des Bauxite de Kindia, utilises child labour in many of its work areas. The company also relies heavily on subcontractors, “phantom” companies which are tied to Conté’s associates. 
 
These enterprises operate in the black, and are the worst abusers of workers’ rights in a country in which workplace rights are nearly non-existent. 
 
After meeting with ICEM Gen. Sec. Manfred Warda and ICEM staff, Warda stated, “The people of Guinea deserve our support and solidarity. They are living and working under the worst circumstances imaginable. It is incumbent for global trade unions to follow the lead of Guinea’s heroic unions, and to join their struggle for justice and democratic reforms.”

Struggle Continues for Trade Unionists in Bringing Democracy to Guinea

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