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The Botswana court case in which diamond-mining company Debswana pressed forward in order to extract maximum punishment on some 450 workers who struck last August was dismissed 24 March. An Industrial Court judge issued a detailed, 79-page ruling that said the court had no jurisdiction over criminal matters. Debswana, jointly owned by DeBeers and the government of Botswana, is on a ruthless campaign to destroy the lives of these workers who struck after the company used a new labour law to declare any strike at the 6,000-worker mining operations illegal. Debswana has forcefully evicted the strikers from company housing, and has closed educational opportunities to children of strikers in company-sponsored schools.

Mining Union Wins Court Case Against Debswana in Botswana

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NUPENG and PENGASSAN, ICEM affiliates in Nigeria’s energy sector, reached agreement with oil companies and the country’s Ministry of Labour and Productivity on 6 April, five days ahead of a threatened three-day warning strike. 
The signed accord compels all parties to monitor compliance of quotas on expatriate workers in the oil industry, as well as regulating casualisation and contract workers, redundancies and pensions.

Nigerian Unions, Government Reach Accord Over Issues

After losing a contempt of court case against leaders of the Botswana Mining Workers Union (BMWU) last month, diamond-mining monopoly Debswana has chosen a different retaliatory route following a 13-day strike late last summer: internal disciplinary measures against BMWU leaders. Debswana, a joint venture between DeBeers and the government of Botswana, has summoned individual leaders of the union for hearings on the spontaneous strike action that broke out in only a few areas of the company’s wide-ranging operations. Despite company rhetoric calling for healing and reconciliation over the August-September strike that saw participation by 450 of the firm’s 7,000 workers, this latest action is proof that the company has no intention of forgiving and forgetting.

Debswana Continues to Retaliate Against Botswana's Miners

A five-GUF project kicks off this week, thanks to FNV Mondiaal of The Netherlands, the international arm of the national union confederation. It is a three-year union modernization effort on behalf of several affiliated unions in five countries: Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgystan by ICEM, IFBWW, ITF, IUF and UNI. The project will provide selected unions with strategic managing and organizational development skills.

Multi-GUF Union-Building Projects Begins for Eastern Europe

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Spontaneous solidarity strikes crossed the Finnish paper sector last week in support of paperworkers locked out at Stora Enso's Anjalankoski mill. Some 29,000 workers represented by ICEM affiliate Paperiliitto are staging industrial action due to anti-worker demands of the Forest Industries Federation of Finland. Stora Enso used the industrial action to lock out workers at that paper mill. 
The employers' group is now engaged in wage talks with Paperiliitto but it also is seeking increases in outsourcing and reduction in paper mill shutdown holidays. All of UPM Kymmene and Stora Enso's mills saw strike action last week and a number of M-Real mills also were temporarily shut.

Strikes Begin in Finnish Paper Sector

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Strike action by ICEM affiliate Paperiliitto against Finland’s paper manufacturers intensified this week with near total shutdowns on 16-17 May of all paper mills following failure of mediated talks over the weekend. Employers now threaten a two-week lockout beginning 18 May in retaliation. 
After pulling out late last year from the national incomes policy agreement, the employers’ Forest Industries Federation is now seeking rash concessions including eliminating Christmas and mid-summer shutdown days, greater flexibility including 12-hour shifts and sick leave cuts, making the first two days unpaid. 
That proposal, however, was tempered some in recent mediation. Paperiliitto’s resistance to the irrational proposals has been boosted by the commitment of ICEM affiliate Svenska Pappers. The union has imposed a ban on overtime in its papermills in Sweden, and will refuse to perform work shifted into Swedish paper mills from mills in Finland. Some six major companies are involved: Stora Enso, UPM Kymmene, M-Real, Metsä Tissue, Ahlström and Myllykoski.

Finnish Paper Union Strikes Against Harsh Concessions

The ICEM mourns the death of Hungarian trade union leader Lajos Főcze, retired president of the Chemical, Energy, Paper and General Workers’ Unions (VDSZ). He died 3 May at age 68. Brother Főcze was the first Eastern and Central European trade union leader to seek solidarity and affiliation with the ICEF, predecessor to the ICEM. 
In 1990, he was a founding member of the Autonomous Trade Union Confederation of Hungary and served as its president until his retirement in 1999. He began his career with VDSZ in 1974 as a specialist in workers’ safety and social policy. He was president of VDSZ from 1988 to 1999. The ICEM, along with the entire Hungarian trade union movement, will remember Lajos Főcze as a tireless advocate of a free trade union movement globally.

ICEM Saddened by Loss of Hungary’s Lajos Focze

Harmony Gold retreated from its illegal retrenchments in the Free State before a South African mediation commission. ICEM affiliate NUM pressed the matter on the legal front, effectively gaining a significant social rights judgment from the courts in the face of Harmony’s current hostile takeover of bigger rival, Gold Fields. 
The company had unilaterally abrogated a prior agreement and commitment by sacking 5,000 miners in a restructuring move. A court ruling and Harmony’s retreat now means the jobs of the 5,000 are secured. 
Meeting in Midrand on 12-14 May, the NUM’s Central Committee harshly criticized Harmony along with DRDGold, IngweCoal and DeBeers for job destruction inside South Africa. In related gold mining news, the NUM said a safety rep for the union had raised structural questions in mid-April about the Driefontein Mine of Gold Fields. The report cited the company with using temporary support structures in one portion of the mine while it was being operated. On 11 May, an earth tremor shook the mine, killing five and injuring three.

Harmony Gold Retreats from Job Retrenchments in Free State, SA

Oil workers in France at Total won a major victory to preserve holidays by successfully conducting a five-day strike in mid-May. The job actions at five Total refineries saw the French supermajor back down by agreeing to keep Pentecost as a holiday even though the French government abandoned it as a national holiday this year. That means Total will assume all government payouts, giving workers the extra paid day in 2005. Total also agreed to pay workers during the 16-20 May strike. The unions involved were the CFDT, CGT and Force Ouvriere. The Total refineries that were shut: Gonfreville, in northern France; Feyzin and La Mede plants in the south; Grandpuits near Paris; and Donges in western France.

Strike at Total in France Protects Holidays

On June 12, the ILO will focus a day on child labour in the mining sector in celebration of its fourth World Day Against Child Labour. The ICEM and mining employers’ organisation International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) last week signed an accord calling for an end to child labour in all mining and quarrying activity. 
The ILO’s International Programme on Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has found that most child miners are employed in small-scale enterprises which are unregulated and undocumented. IPEC has undertaken pilot projects on child labour in mining in Mongolia, Tanzania, Niger and the Andean countries of South America. Results show the best way to halt such practices is direct involvement in local mining communities and providing access to quality education with real prospects of meaningful employment when children leave school.

ILO’s Child Labour Focus to be on Mining Sector

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