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<img height="48" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="120" alt=""/>
ICEM Belgian affiliates CG-FGTB and SETCa-FGTB have warned Japanese-owned Asahi Glaverbel Glass that further restructuring at the AGC Automotive glass plant in Fleurus, Wallonia, or other AGC worksites, can only be done through strict adherence to solutions already put forward by the unions. 
 
On 29 March, Asahi Glaverbel announced possible redundancies of 380 jobs at Fleurus, Zeebrugge, and Lodelinsart in Belgium. This restructuring occurs a short two years after Belgian unions mounted a 105-day strike at the Fleurus plant. That strike, from December 2005 to March 2006, came about because of Asahi’s failure to come to meaningful social dialogue over an irrational restructuring plan.
<img height="224" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Belgium.png" width="220" alt=""/>
That restructuring exercise cost some 280 jobs at Fleurus then, and other job losses occurred a year later at Asahi Glaverbel’s Zeebrugge flat-glass plant. 
 
“In all three plants,” said the CG-FGTB in a press release, “the workers of Glaverbel have made major efforts in terms of productivity, flexibility, and efficiency. The management of AGC-Fleurus recognises this fact today, and this is also evident by investments” made in other Belgian operations of Glaverbel. 
 
“The workers of Glaverbel-ACG do not deserve” further redundancies, stated CG-FGTB. 
 
The unions did enter social dialogue with the company late in March, and a second meeting was scheduled for 3 April. CG-FGTB and SETCa-FGTB are insistent that they will be thoroughly involved in any business plan put forward this time by the company.
<img height="78" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/BelgiumFLAG.gif" width="120" alt=""/>
CG-FGTB and SETCa-FGTB say their first priority will be to save all the jobs, and they will not tolerate outright sackings. If necessary, transfers for workers between Glaverbel worksites, or voluntary and pre-pension arrangements will be put negotiated. 
 
“Industrial managers (of Asahi) and the political community made promises in the past,” stated the two unions, referring to the negotiated outcome in 2005. “Today, they must honour those pacts. They must listen to the solutions that we have proposed, and support the industrial projects at Glaverbel-ACG that are worthy of solid, job-sustaining initiatives.”

Belgian Unions Declare Strong Intent to Save Asahi Glass Jobs

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In Mexico, the urgent necessity to confront the hijacking of trade unionism was given priority by global trade unions recently. The ICEM was one of seven Global Union Federations that signed on to an ITUC/ORIT declaration calling for an end to “employer protection contracts,” or simply, yellow unionism. 
 
At a 3 April conference in Mexico, the GUFs, national and other global unions, and NGOs joined with ITUC/ORIT, calling on Mexico to halt the practice of company-dominated unions, where workers are victimised, ORIT says, by a “triple sham: pseudo-unions, pseudo labour relations, and pseudo labour authority.” 
 
The campaign, themed “For Liberty, Autonomy and Union Democracy,” kicked off with testimony from workers’ representatives from six sectors. Some workers wore hoods to prevent reprisals, including one from the big US retailer, WalMart.
<img height="130" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Mexico.png" width="280" alt=""/>
The hijacking of honest trade unionism comes in the form of employer protection contracts, which are invariably signed by a manager or owner of an enterprise, and a pre-selected trade union operative. Workers have no say in terms or conditions, and government labour commissions are powerless, since the “sham” labour contracts negotiated between owners and “ghost” labour unions are binding. 
 
ITUC/ORIT, and the global unions and other affiliates, will press “Liberty, Autonomy, Union Democracy” inside Mexico, and before international governing bodies, including the UN Commission and the International Court of Human Rights, and at the ILO.

Stop Illegal Trade Union Activity in Mexico

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For Workers’ Memorial Day 2007, the ICEM has adopted a campaign encouraging affiliates to sign on to the global trade union lobby for a high-level G8 Working Group on HIV/AIDS as a major part of its comprehensive programme to combat the global pandemic. 
 
The ICEM has urged its affiliates to send letters to the German embassy, or a German consulate in their home countries, requesting creation of such a high-level commission. Germany is host to the G8 Summit this year. 
 
The ICEM strongly believes that such a Working Group is needed to guarantee there is progress on prior G8 commitments to achieve universal access to HIV/AIDS drugs, treatments, and care by 2010, and to escalate development of a vaccine to prevent HIV infection. ICEM believes that a more sustained political commitment and commitment of resources by the world's richest nations must occur to reverse this deadly pandemic plaguing workers in the developing world. 
<img height="86" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/icem-logo.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
The letter for creation of such a high-level Working Group states: "The UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, signed by the G8 and other countries, promised a dedicated focus on HIV/AIDS. In so doing, countries agreed to time-bound commitments for ensuing progress to address the most serious global health threat known to our civilization. 
 
"We therefore call upon the government of Germany, as the host of the next G8, to support our call for the fulfilment of these and other G8 commitments on HIV/AIDS. We are not suggesting that a new bureaucracy by created, but that a Working Group of experts of the G8 be set-up and that it be supported by the technical support of existing bodies such as UNAIDS and its co-sponsors." 
 
The ICEM has launched several HIV/AIDS projects in recent years to address the negative work aspects of the pandemic. ICEM also sponsors projects to provide training for national coordinators in Africa so they can educate workers on HIV/AIDS and the necessity of testing. Such projects will in the future be extended to Latin America and Asia.

ICEM's 28 April Priority: Lobby G8 Summit for Creation of High-Level Working Group on HIV/AIDS

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On 17 April, a special commission, formed by the government of Peru, adopted a prohibition of asbestos and recommended a total ban on the product, which would take effect on 1 January 2009. 
 
This means that 46 countries have now banned or will ban asbestos across the world. While making the decision, the Peruvian government's commission took into account debate and arguments from the Asbestos Ban Network, Peru's industry representatives, and the lobby of the International Asbestos Industry. 
<img height="93" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Peru.png" width="200" alt=""/>
Peru currently imports 492 tons of asbestos per year. The government has not yet ratified ILO Convention 162 (Use of Asbestos at Work), or Convention 155 (Occupational Safety and Health). 
 
Trade union federations in Peru were among the 16 labour groups in five Andean nations which helped to compile a recent document titled "Ban Asbestos in the Andean Sub-region." The document, written with the support of Dr. Eva Delgado and published by the Andean Labour Institute, was also aided by labour federations in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.

Peru: Government to Place Total Ban on Asbestos, Effective in 2009

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A mass strike in Peru has proven successful, despite government efforts to downplay the effect the strike has had on a number of mining enterprises. The strike was called by ICEM affiliate National Federation of Mining, Metallurgy, and Steel Workers Union (FNTMMSP) on 30 April and, by all accounts, over 40 copper, nickel, zinc, iron, gold, and silver mining operations have lost high levels of production since last week. 
 
The strike can easily be said to be a success, with the government already guaranteeing higher social benefits for contract and agency workers at the outset of the strike. After the union’s return to tri-partite bargaining on 4 May, and following cessation of the strike, FNTMMSP is now pushing for further regularisation of the contract labour status, which needs to include the right to unionisation for contract workers. 
<img height="100" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector.JPG" width="100"/>
The strike by the 28,000-member FNTMMSP saw roughly half of Peru’s 110,000 miners participating. This included a good number of the mining sector’s 50,000 contract or agency workers. 
Peru’s Labour Minister Susanna Pinilla, however, has taken to the airwaves and has been quoted in the business press playing down the success of the strike. Throughout last week’s strike, she kept providing a regular narrative of mining operations in Peru that continued production. 
 
The mining union federation, FNTMMSP, covering some 75 individual site-level unions, has complained bitterly to the government for some time that the Labour Ministry and other monitors have failed to keep pace with the burgeoning number of agencies or contract labour providers doing business in Peru’s booming mining industry. Many of these agencies and service providers operate in the black. 
<img height="240" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0705Peru1.jpg" width="380"/>
“The over-exploitation of these workers has been going on for too long,” said FNTMMSP Sec. Gen. Luis Castillo Carlos, who himself has participated in ICEM conferences on Contract and Agency Labour. “The miners’ strike was called because the authorities lack the political will to enforce labour rights,” he added. 
 
FNTMMSP and its affiliated mining unions are seeking strict regularisation of mining employment agencies; enhanced profit-sharing arrangements for its members and newly-established profit-sharing for contract and agency workers; shorter work days; and improved pension benefits.
The 30 April strike actually started two days earlier when miners from two sites of Grupo Mexico-connected Southern Peru Copper Co. blocked roads around Ilo, Peru. Southern Peru’s mines in Toquepala and Cuajone suffered deep production losses during the strike. FNTMMSP held marches in several regions on 1 May, and also conducted rallies on 2 May and 4 May at the Labour Ministry in Lima. 
A sampling of mining operations in Peru affected by the strike includes: Southern Peru Copper Co.; US-operated Doe Run’s La Oroya copper and lead smelting operations; several of Volcan Cia Minera SA’s zinc smelters; BHP Billiton’s Tintaya copper operations in Cusco; Chinese state-run Shougang Hierroperu’s iron ore mines in the country’s south; Glencore International AG’s Los Quenuales zinc operation; Cia. De Minas Buenaventura; and zinc producers Cia. Minera Santa Luisa SA and Cia. Minera Raura SA. 
<img height="93" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Peru.png" width="200"/>
At US-based Newmont Mining’s Yanacocha SRL’s gold mine and smelter, South America’s largest gold operation, miners conducted a march and protest in support of FNTMMSP’s strike. 
 
One already achieved result of the strike is that the government did commit to increase the number of labour inspectors in Peru from 100 to 250 by the end of the year. That should help in monitoring and in getting agency labour agencies to comply with Peruvian law. 
 
Despite Labour Minister Pinilla downplaying the effect of the strike, one cabinet minister did publicly confirm the significance of the strike. “The demands voiced by these workers are fair,” stated Energy and Mines Minister Juan Valdivia in a published report. 
 
Referring to the vast proliferation of service-providing entities inside Peru’s mining sector, he added, “There are companies that comply and others that don’t. The ones that do not respect labour rights should be punished,” said Valdiva.

Mining Strike in Peru Produces Gains for Contract Workers

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The ICEM teamed with the International Transport Workers´ Federation (ITF) in applying pressure on President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The ICEM also lodged strong protest to Kabila over the dispute by workers at the Société Minière de Bakwanga (MIBA), a diamond extraction company. 
 
The transport matter concerned the unfair and arbitrary arrest of trade unionist Leon Ngoy Bululu, vice-president of ITF-affiliated Solidarité Syndicale des Travailleurs et Cadres du Congo (SOLIDARITE). 
He was arrested on 20 April 2007, following an appearance on a 14 March television programme on the Molière channel. In the broadcast, he reportedly spoke out against ongoing mismanagement of the national transport company, Office National des Transports (ONATRA). Mr. Bululu was arrested at his office by agents of the Brigade Criminelle du parquet de la Gombe and detained, following a complaint by the management of the transport company. 
<img height="93" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CongoDRC.png" width="200"/>
ONATRA employs 17,800 workers throughout DRC’s five provinces: Kinshasa, Bas-Congo, Bandungu, Equateur and the Province Orientale. Among the issues raised by Comrade Bululu was the fact that the company keeps hiring new workers, over 1,200 recently, even though wages for current workers are delayed by four months. 
 
Bululu was first imprisoned at the "Parquet de Grande Instance de la Gombe." Later, he was transferred to the notorious Makala prison, where he finds himself incarcerated without due and diligent legal processes. Efforts to find out more about his current condition have, so far, been without result. 
 
Both ICEM and ITF call for his immediate release, which they say is clear and calculated trade union repression. 
 
The diamond mining dispute at state-run Société Minière de Bakwanga (MIBA), a diamond extraction operation near Mbuji-Mayi, in south-central Kasai-Oriental Province, has forced a strike by workers also over non-payment of wages. The strike began 23 April. 
MIBA is some seven months behind in paying wages.
<img height="63" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CongoRepDemFLAG.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
A joint trade union delegation is furthermore demanding a return of social benefits that the government has taken away from diamond miners and others, and calls on the company to provide adequate equipment to guarantee health and safety. 
 
Participating unions in the strike are FENAMICO, SYTRAME, CTP, GST, SYGEMI, SLC, FGTK, FTF, all of which are ICEM affiliates, and FOSYCO, which is affiliated to the International Energy & Mines Organisation (IEMO).

ICEM protests Congo’s Transport, Diamond Injustices

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A gem-polishing dispute that saw intense ICEM involvement in 2001 has flared again at Almond Jewellery in Bangkok. The New York-based jewellery exporter locked out 254 workers on 9 April. 
 
Workers are in protest over the firing of two key leaders of the plant-level union, which occurred in September 2006, and management’s refusal to enter into to obligatory social talks over renewed labour terms. Workers began picketing the factory on 17 April. On 19 April, 200 of Almond’s workers marched to the Government House in Bangkok and presented a petition. They were joined by trade union leaders from ICEM’s Thai-affiliated unions. 
<img height="263" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0704CALThailand2.jpg" width="350" alt=""/>
Almond unionists marched to Govt House on 19 April
A government representative met with leaders of the workers at Almond, and pledged to investigate the lockout within seven days. That is now in progress. 
 
Almond is continuing to operate the gem-polishing factory with a small number of regular workers and some 400-500 agency workers. 
 
The contract dispute started in late January, after the union requested the re-opening of contract talks. Managers responded by demanding benefits back from workers that had previously been obtained during negotiations. Managers then made threats of dismissal to workers if they engaged in union activity, and they have forced some workers to sign petitions indicating their withdrawal from the union. 
<img height="263" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0704CALThailand.jpg" width="350" alt=""/>
The ICEM obtained bargaining rights for workers at Almond’s factory in Bangkok in late 2001. Then, Almond had sacked over 50 workers, including the entire leadership of the plant-level committee. The ICEM pressured Almond’s owners to reinstate the workers, begin negotiations with the union, and to drop lawsuits the company brought against leaders for legitimate trade union activity. 
 
Almond’s New York-based leader Jonathan Mandelbaum agreed to a four-point charter, which included the above. Since 2001, gem-polishing workers made positive gains in negotiations with managers. Almond’s managers now seek to dismantle those gains. 
But workers have been tested before, and the 19 April march and protest at the Government House signals renewed resistance. Workers are demanding the re-hiring of plant-level President Patoom Kamdeewan and Committee Member Akom Thongdeewan, and are insisting on backpay for both, as well as for all locked-out workers.
<img height="264" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/almond9.jpg" width="350"/>
Former ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs talking to 
Thai Almond workers in 2001
The united workforce is seeking a 5% wage increase, plus a bonus payment. Workers seek a monthly-wage pattern, instead of daily wages, and demand that Almond pay them a transportation allowance. 
 
They also are demanding inclusion of contract and agency workers under terms of the collective bargaining agreement. 
 
The ICEM supports these demands as fair and just.

Thai Gem-Polishing Firm Again Bringing Labour Problems to the Fore

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ICEM affiliate Petroleum, Mining, Chemical Workers’ in Palestine (GUPMCWP) undertook a two-day course in Ramallah on trade union education and committee building. The workshops took place 27-28 April. 
 
The training for 25 workers is a continuation of programmes and practices that the union is engaged in to build a democratic trade union movement. 
 
In February, some 60 Palestinian labour activists took part in a similar seminar, also in the Palestinian West Bank city of Ramallah. 
<img height="115" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Palestine.png" width="250" alt=""/>
Workers in Palestine have suffered immeasurably due to restrictions by the Israeli military on freedom of movement to and from jobs. The production of goods from Palestine and the providing of services have also stricken the country’s economy, in what the ICEM has stated is “collective punishment of a people.” 
 
Viable and democratic trade unions hold the future for growth and a measure of prosperity for millions of Palestinians, the ICEM believes. To help achieve that, the ICEM has established a programme with GUPMCWP that includes training for women workers inside Birzeit Pharmaceutical, a factory that has experienced shortages of raw products due to delays caused by the Israeli authorities. 
<img height="129" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0603PalestineJadallah.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
GUPMCWP President Mohammad Mousa Jadallah 
GUPMCWP President Mohammad Mousa Jadallah said that the Palestinians that are hurt the most by Israel’s blockade on movement, trade, and revenues are women, children, and the elderly. 
 
Jadallah said the union’s workers’ training programmes will heighten awareness to potential gains that can be made for all Palestinian workers. 
 
Nabeel Mahmmoud, GUPMCWP’s International Director, said the training serves as basic organising, and that building of democratic committee structures inside workplaces – particularly Birzeit Pharmaceutical – is a necessity in Palestine to alleviate poverty.

Palestine Trade Union GUPMCWP Conducts Further Trade Union Courses

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The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) are calling for a “Day of Action” on 9 August 2007, demanding the immediate release of two trade unionists locked inside Iran’s prisons. The two global federations are calling for pickets, protests, and letter-writing to Iranian embassies or consulates by trade unions in their home countries. 
 
The ICEM joins with the ITUC and ITF in demanding the release of Mansour Osanloo, the leader of the Tehran bus workers’ union, and the release of Mahmoud Salehi, the founding member of the Saqez Bakery Workers’ Association. The date of 9 August was chosen because it is the one-year anniversary of Osanloo’s release from jail in 2006, following mass global trade union protests.
          <img height="114" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ITUC.jpg" width="120"/>         <img height="100" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ITF.jpg" width="100"/>
  
Osanloo was arrested for the third time on 10 July 2007, following a tour of European labour institutions and labour unions, in which he spoke of the labour abuses and restrictions on freedom of association by Iran’s Islamic regime. Witnesses said he was beaten as he was hauled off by secret police. Confirmation came two weeks ago that he is being held in Evin prison. 
 
Mahmoud Salehi is in ill-health and has been sent to a distant prison in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province. The ITUC said there is firm evidence that his life is in danger because of inadequate medial care at this prison. 
 
The ICEM strongly encourages affiliated trade unions to take some form of meaningful action on 9 August in support of their releases.

9 August Designated as ‘Day of Action’ for Jailed Iranian Trade Unionists

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The ICEM has taken issue with a global building contractor following the dismissal of a union leader in Argentina. 
 
Management of Swedish-based Skanska AB’s Argentine subsidiary fired the leader of ICEM affiliate Federación Argentina Sindicol del Petróleo y Gas Privados (FASPyGP), Marcelo Turchetti, while he was engaged in legitimate union activities for the Austral Basin branch of the union in Santa Cruz Province.
The sacking occurred in June, and FASPyGP began a boycott of Skanska’s contracting services at all of Argentina’s energy worksites. The company operates as a contractor for ExxonMobil, Petrobras, Repsol, Royal Dutch Shell, and Chevron operations in Argentina. Skanska employs 1,000 construction workers in Argentina. 
<img height="66" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ArgentinaFLAG.gif" width="100"/>
“We have implemented a boycott campaign and we have taken all the necessary legal steps under our country’s laws to get him reinstated,” said FASPyGP Secretary General Alberto Roberti. 
 
The ICEM alerted the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) prior to lodging the complaint. The BWI and Skanska are signatories to a Global Framework Agreement (GFA), agreed to in 2001. 
 
In the ICEM letter, General Secretary Manfred Warda states that “Turchetti was discharged in the performance of his legitimate union duties … this is counter to Core Labour Conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and is counter to the principles contained in the (GFA) that your company has signed with ICEM’s fellow GUF, the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI).” 
 
The ICEM is seeking for the branch leader’s immediate reinstatement with full back wages. The ICEM’s letter to Skanska can be found <a href="http://herecem.org/index.php?id=21&doc=2353.&la=EN" type="internal">here</a>.

Swedish Builder Skanska Charged with Union-Busting in Argentina

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