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<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The ICEM supports the International Trade Union Confederation-led trade union appeal for victims of the earthquake disaster in Haiti. The trade union relief work is being carried out primarily by ITUC’s affiliates in the Dominican Republic, in cooperation with Haitian colleagues across the border. 
 
We urge ICEM affiliates to support this Appeal. 
 
Funds for the appeal can be transferred to the following ITUC bank account: 
 
No. 375-1008200-61 
Banque ING, Brussels Branch Institutionals, 1 rue du Trone, B-1000 Brussels 
Code IBAN: BE 62375100820061 
Code BIC/Swift: BBRUBEBB 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ITUC100.jpg" width="100" height="95"/>
The ITUC requests that the words “SOS Solidarity – Haiti” are included with each transfer to this account. 
 
ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder has called for the cancellation of Haiti’s debt, in the aftermath of the disaster, to increase the country’s chances of reconstruction. 
 
As has been widely reported in the mainstream media, the huge earthquake hit Haiti on 12 January, and was followed by a number of aftershocks. Along with the reported death toll of over 100,000, Haiti’s infrastructure has been severely damaged, with many buildings and roads completely destroyed. The humanitarian situation is desperate and aid is needed. 
 
Once the immediate humanitarian effort passes, the solidarity campaign will continue to use funds raised to help Haitians in their recovery from this natural disaster.

ICEM Urges Haitian Relief Funds through ITUC

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM reported on 22 February in InBrief No. 150 that the affiliated mining union the National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union (FNTMMSP), the country’s largest mining union federation, has taken strike action at three mines of the precious metal producer Buenaventura. Peruvian law stipulates that companies must share a minimum of 8% of its profits with workers. The union claims Buenaventura are hiding financial information of the period 2006-2009 in order to avoid profit payments to the 4,000 workers during a global price boom. 
 
With the Peruvian Ministry of Labour siding with the company, and announcing the strike illegal, workers were forced back to work to avoid losing their jobs. This decision by the government has led FNTMMSP to go on short, rolling strikes. Workers will again down tools this Friday, 26 March, at the Antapite gold mine, and the next day at the Uchucchacua silver and Orcopampa gold mines of Buenaventura. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0907.peru.miners.jpg" width="175" height="125"/>
A FNTMMSP local leader at the Orcopampa mine stated that the demands of the strikers include improvements in working conditions, and the rehiring of a miner fired during an earlier strike, as well as a larger share of profit-earning bonuses. 
 
Buenaventura managers have so far refused to negotiate, with Buenaventura CEO Carlos Gálvez stating that only shareholders have the power to increase workers’ wages. He said management is powerless to avoid the rolling strikes. 
 
Uchucchacua is located in Lima's Oyón province, Orcopampa in Arequipa region, and Antapite in Huancavelica region. Buenaventura operates four other mines and has a controlling interest in mining companies Cedimin and El Brocal. El Brocal workers went on a separate strike 13 March in response to management failing to pay agreed pay raises. 
 
Elsewhere in the Peruvian mining industry, 630 workers at Doe Run’s Cobriza copper mine have ended a strike after one day, as company officials immediately began tripartite negotiations with FNTMMSP and the Labour Ministry. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/People/0910PeruFNTMMSPLuis%20Castillo.jpg" width="160" height="120"/>
FNTMMSP General Secretary, Luis Castillo Carlos
FNTMMSP General Secretary Luis Castillo has led the negotiations for the mineworkers of Doe Run. Castillo argues that the collective agreement has not been fulfilled by management, whereas it has been by workers, a year after it was signed. 
 
Doe Run Peru has been hard hit by the financial downturn. The operation, which is a unit of the US-based Renco Group, had its credit line cut six months ago. 
 
The company was expelled from the country’s National Association of Mining and Energy for not completing a government-mandated clean-up at the metals processing complex in the central Peruvian city of La Oroya, which environmental organizations say is one of the world’s most polluted places. 
 
Earlier this month, Doe Run Peru signed a letter of intent with Swiss mining multinational Glencore. If the agreement on a sale goes through, Glencore will provide Doe Run with a credit of some US$100 million, and will also finance the environmental clean-up demanded by government. 
 
The Peruvian mining industry’s US$16.36 billion in foreign sales last year amounted to nearly 61% of the Andean nation’s total exports.

Peruvian Miners Struggle for Fair Profit Share Continues 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The International Trade Union Congress (ITUC) today launched the third and final stage of a new Youth Campaign. The campaign video was released 18 March, and that can be seen <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWvuOqCEU9U">here</a>. 
 
On 19 March, the campaign blog and brochure were released, so visit the blog <a href="http://youth.ituc-csi.org/ITUC-launches-Youth-Campaign-STEP,224 ">here</a> and view the brochure <a href="http://youth.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/Youth_EN_Final.pdf">here</a>. 
 
The Youth Blog has been redesigned and modernised, with new functionalities such as Facebook and Twitter. The brochure is a best practice guide on organising young people, informing young people about trade union work at the global, as well as national level. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1003.ituc.youth.campaign.jpg" width="256" height="82"/>
The ITUC calls on supporters to redistribute the materials of its Youth Campaign, and to share the video and become involved via online social networking platforms. For hard copies of the brochure, contact the ITUC here <a href="mailto:youth@ituc-csi.org">youth@ituc-csi.org</a>. 
 
The various tools made available through this campaign are of valuable use for trade unions throughout the world in order to complement their existing organising work for new young members. The tools will especially assist unions in illustrating the international side of their work. 
 
Today, the new Youth Campaign website will be made available online. Visit the page <a href="http://www.changetheworld-now.com/ ">here</a>.

ITUC Launches Youth Campaign  

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
After seven-and-a-half to eight days trapped deep inside a coal mine, Chinese rescue teams freed some 120 workers today, 5 April, from a massive state-owned colliery still under construction. The Wangjialing mine in northern Shanxi Province was flooded by 140,000 cubic metres of water on 28 March when workmen, one kilometre underground, inadvertently broke through a wall into an adjacent and abandoned shaft filled with water. 
 
There were hopes that some of the remaining 30 of 153 workers trapped might also be alive. “It is a miracle. This has been worth all (our rescue) efforts, not to have slept for several days,” said one medical worker today to the news agency China Nouvelle. 
 
Chinese authorities began sending divers and other rescuers into the mine on Saturday, 3 April, after drilling and laying pipes were done to pump water out. Workers were stranded for over a week in some nine different mine shafts. Some 100 rescue workers descended into the mine late last evening, 4 April, and returned in the early hours of today with the first nine survivors. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ChinaFLAG.gif" width="200" height="134" alt=""/>
By mid-afternoon in Shanxi Province, or 06h00 GMT, another 111 construction workers had been pulled from pits. 
 
The State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) last week blamed lax safety and a haste to finish construction on the 180-square-kilometre mine as cause, but ineffective mapping of either waterlogged old shafts or an underground river no doubt also contributed. 
 
Workers reported persistent water leaks in the days leading up to the flood and brought that to the attention of construction supervisors. But the warnings went unheeded. Workers had also seen their eight-hour workdays increase to 16 in efforts to finish mine construction so mechanical digging could begin. Reportedly, several construction managers fled the area immediately after the flooding began, and they are now wanted by Chinese authorities. 
 
SAWS stated on its website: “This incident once again exposes lapses in responsibility and management of safety and failure to take safety checks and measures seriously.” 
 
The eight-day ordeal, which saw some 3,000 recovery and medical personnel present, got wide attention both inside China and worldwide. Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang appeared at the site on the third day of rescue operations (30 March) and later in the week sided with angry relatives of workers who demanded local officials release a list of those missing. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.china.mine.flood.jpg" width="216" height="156" alt=""/>
Huajin Coking Coal Ltd., jointly owned by the China National Coal Group and the Shanxi Coking Coal Co. Ltd., was started in 2006 as a US$287.5 million project, with an expected production of six million tonnes annually. The mine is estimated to have 2.3 billion tonnes of coal reserves, including 1.04 billion tonnes of proven reserves. 
 
Construction started on the Wangjialing project near the city of Hejin in Xiangning County in April 2007 and was originally scheduled to be completed by March 2010. 
 
But delays pushed that deadline back to October 2010, and it is now certain that the rush to finish later this year jeopardized construction safety. 
 
The Wangjialing mine tragedy will inevitably result in some deaths, but it was not the only China coal mine last week that experienced death. In nearby Henan province on 31 March, 19 miners were killed and 24 are still missing after a methane gas explosion inside an illegal Guomin Mining colliery near Luoyang City, Yichuan County. The mine had been ordered closed by provincial safety authorities on 1 May 2009, after huge gas outbursts were reported. Managers of the privately-owned company had gone missing following the explosion. 
 
And a day earlier, on 30 March, ten workers became trapped and died at the Shajihai Coal Mine in the far western autonomous region of Xinjiang Uighur when a shaft collapsed. 
 
On 1 April, nine miners perished from a fire inside the Quanzigou Coal Mine near Hancheng City, Shaanxi Province. In the northeastern province of Heilongjiang on 1 April, a flood inside shafts trapped five miners and they are presumed dead. And carbon monoxide from self-made explosives claimed four lives in the autonomous region of Guangxi Zhuang in southeastern China.

Miraculous Rescue for Majority of 153 Workers Trapped in Chinese Coal Mine

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
With the support of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), trade unions in Iraq have come together to create a campaign and a website, calling for international solidarity and pressure on the government of Iraq to enact fair labour legislation. Seven years after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, workers in Iraq are still without legislative protection of their fundamental rights at work. 
 
The ICEM strongly supports the campaign, and urges all trade unions from all corners of the world to offer similar support by logging onto the website <a href="http://www.iraqitradeunions.org/cgi-bin/campaign1.cgi">here</a> and join the campaign. (If your organization wants to endorse the campaign, send a mail to Abdullah Muhsin of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) <a href="mailto:postmaster@iraqitradeunions.org">here</a> to give that endorsement.) 
 
Many in the Iraqi government now perceive trade unions as government tools. However, momentum is building behind the campaign for free and independent trade unions, and fair and just labour laws. Important political figures inside Iraq are now pledging their support. These include former President Jalal Talabani, 85 members of Parliament, the Oil Minister, and many community and business leaders. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0707%20iraqHashmeyaElectUnion.jpg" width="175" height="118"/>
Hashmeya Muhsin
Hashmeya Muhsin, President of the GFIW-affiliated General Union of Electricity Workers and Technicians, and a member of the ICEM Executive Committee, is a key figure in the campaign. She recently told the ITUC in an interview that international solidarity and pressure are crucial in pushing the government to enact fair labour legislation. 
 
The key parliamentary drafting committee has consulted with the campaign's coordinating group, the National Labour Campaign Committee (NLCC), and MPs are petitioning for proposed legislation to be debated in Parliament. 
 
Despite the right to organize being clearly guaranteed in the new constitution, Iraq’s government falls back on the blatant anti-union decree of the Saddam era. The current campaign calls for the abolition of Saddam’s Law 150 of 1987, and Order 8750 of August 2005 by the occupation forces, which effectively froze all trade union assets and financial accounts, making it impossible for unions to function. 
 
Saddam’s Law 150 bans all public sector employees from organising or striking. Some 90% of all Iraqi enterprises are considered part of the public sector, including oil, gas, electricity, textiles, and most other manufacturing sectors. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.iraq.campaign.2.jpg" width="320" height="184"/>
While several versions of a new labour code have been drafted, with the aid of the ILO, political opposition and a gridlocked Parliament has blocked progress. When the campaign is successful in abolishing the draconian anti-union measures of Saddam and the occupation forces, only then can elections to union office be held, free and without government interference. Free trade unions in Iraq will enhance nation-building and contribute greatly to establishing democratic institutions. 
 
Current evidence of the urgent need for new labour legislation is the government interference in the Iraqi Teachers’ Union (ITU). The government committee entrusted with overseeing the leadership elections of the union is attempting to install its preferred candidates into leadership positions. 
 
The ICEM calls on all its trade union affiliates to join this campaign. Now is the time to raise the profile that Iraqi trade unions have been working towards since 2003 – labour statutes that comply with international labour standards, and strong trade unions that can enforce those statutes and protect global standards.

Campaign for Effective Iraqi Labour Laws Takes Shape 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
from International Metalworkers’ Federation website 
The ILO is urging the Mexican government to resolve its dispute with the National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM) and considers the government has acted in a way that is incompatible with ILO Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association. 
 
The ILO released on 26 March the interim recommendations of its Committee of Freedom of Association to the Mexican government in response to a complaint on interference in union autonomy lodged by the SNTMMSRM and the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) in March 2006, ILO Case No. 2478. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Mexico.SNTMMSRM.jpg" width="120" height="145"/>
The complaint documents how Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, the democratically elected general secretary of SNTMMSRM, was forcefully removed from his position after speaking out against the Mexican government and mining company in response to a tragic mine accident in Pasta de Conchos that left 65 miners dead, many of them members of the union. The complaint also documents how the government illegally intervened in independent union activities, forced the dismissal of union leadership, seized union assets, and made government appointments to union elected positions. 
 
In subsequent submissions on Case No. 2478, the union and IMF has also documented ongoing interference and acts of violence by Grupo México and the Mexican government, including using the national army and federal police to break strikes, kill workers, and arrest union leaders fighting for safer working conditions in Grupo México-owned mines. 
 
In its recommendations to the ILO Governing Body, the Committee on Freedom of Association states that it “considers that the labour authorities engaged in conduct that is incompatible with Article 3 of Convention No. 87, which established the right of workers to elect their representatives in full freedom.” 
“The Committee deplores the excessive length of the judicial procedures relating to various aspects of the case and the grave prejudice that this has caused to the complainant union” and “urges for a rapid conclusion of the judicial procedures.” 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ILO.jpg" width="98" height="91"/>
The committee requests addition information from the government on several points and in particular on the question of the death of worker Reynaldo Hernández González, the use of force by public security forces at the Cananea mine, continuing arrest warrants, freezing of union accounts, threats and acts of violence, including the death and injury of trade unionists. 
 
The Committee calls on all the parties concerned to continue to make efforts within the existing round of negotiations to resolve the collective dispute to which this case results. 
 
A copy of the report is published on the ILO website under Mexico, Freedom of Association Cases, and can be found <a href="http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/english/newcountryframeE.htm ">here</a>.

ILO Backs Los Mineros, Cites Mexican Government with Convention 87 Interference

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Representatives of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) say it has not been uncommon for Alcan, the steel and aluminum subsidiary of Rio Tinto, to lose alumina hydrate into coastal waters while loading ships in the Northern Territory. 
 
But on 13 April, something more grievous occurred. While loading a ship near Alcan’s bauxite Gove refinery in Nhulunbuy, workers were ordered by a manager to dump a ship-loading conveyer containing 80 tonnes of alumina into Melville Bay after the load became contaminated with water. The AMWU-represented workers protested the decision, but the manager called the lead supervisor who ordered it dumped into the harbour. 
 
The incident went unreported for two weeks until a whistle-blower informed the news media. Alcan management then responded by saying the 80-tonne figure was wrong – that it was only 30 tonnes. 
 
Rio Tinto Alcan could face a maximum A$1 million fined by the Northern Territory Environmental Ministry if the company is found to have illegally dumped harmful substances. Alumina hydrate contains caustic soda, which can cause severe burns. 
 
AMWU members working at Alcan at Gove say it is common for two percent of loads to be lost due to wind or negligence. The AMWU is standing behind Gove workers as they provide evidence to the territory’s Environment Department. A union representative said it was the company’s inaction over a number of years that caused workers to go to the media over the April incident.

AMWU Members Say Rio Tinto’s Alcan Alumina Spills Not Uncommon

Following the start up seminar of the ICEM Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) project in Dakar, Senegal, in March 2009, the Industrial Workers' Union of Senegal (SUTIDS), conscious of the issue and consequences on workers and their organisation, started a media campaign through the major outlet channels of the country. 
 
The union did this through the two biggest television channels of Senegal and the West African region. 
 
Statements made by the general secretary of SUTIDS, those of the ICEM/CAL Project Coordinator for Sub-Saharan Africa, and a representative of the Minister of Labour were broadcast and commented on in most of the languages in Senegal (Ouolof, French, Toucouleur, Sérère and English). 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Senegal.png" width="250" height="115"/>
The conclusions of the seminar were also sent to the Office of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Assembly, the Senate, the National Labour Advisory Commission, the Ministry of Labour, and the ILO. 
 
When the General Secretary of SUTIDS met the Prime Minister of Senegal, he had the opportunity to raise the issue of outsourcing and interim employment, making the country’s leader aware of the sensitive nature of the issue. The Prime Minister requested to see all of the reports of the ICEM/CAL seminar held in March 2009. 
 
SUTIDS therefore organised a media and advocacy campaign among the highest state authorities of Senegal. 
 
These actions contributed to the adoption and promulgation by the President of the Republic of Senegal of Law No. 2009- 1412 on Private Recruitment Agencies and Casual Employment.

Origins of a New CAL Law: ICEM Work in Senegal 

In occupational health and safety, accidents are best described as the results of failures in those systems that ought to keep workers safe. These can include choices of materials, tools, equipment, processes; the design of specific tasks or the work process; level and competence of supervisory control; workplace environment including noise, dust, fumes, heat, cold, and conditions of floors, surfaces, lighting; and the characteristics of workers themselves, including experience, skills, training, and other human factors. 
 
When one or more of these systems fails, an accident can occur. Was an inappropriate tool provided? Was the task poorly designed to begin with? Were supervisors absent or negligent? Was the workplace environment inhospitable? Did the workers have the appropriate skills and capabilities to do the work safely? Systems failures that expose workers to hazards must be corrected at the source, with personal protective equipment used only where elimination at the source is not possible or practical. 
 
Unions demand three fundamental rights for workplace health and safety: the right to know about the hazards of the work; the right to participate in health and safety systems, and the right to refuse unsafe work. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="146" height="66"/>
The systems above are far more likely to be weak or absent entirely for Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) workers. The hazards they face are less likely to be corrected at the source, and more likely to be dealt with by providing personal protective equipment - if even this is provided. Finally, contract and agency workers are in a weak position to demand any of their three basic occupational health and safety rights, without the risk of losing their job. 
 
The vulnerability of CAL workers is reflected in accident statistics. Last year in Belgium, agency workers were twice as likely as permanent workers to suffer a workplace accident. The ICEM’s Peruvian mining affiliate, FNTMMSP, reported that 49 miners died in the first nine months of 2009, 37 of whom were working for subcontracting companies. In Turkey, thousands of young migrants who work in jeans factories are likely to develop silicosis, following exposure to high levels of silica during the denim sandblasting process. Forty-four workers have already died this year and 550 have so far been diagnosed with the disease. 
 
Unions and decent work make work safer. Insecure contract and agency labour can and does injure workers.

Job Vulnerability Puts Health of Temp Workers at Risk 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
In the US, the ICEM intervened on behalf of the affiliated Teamsters Union in a strike that started on 3 November and ended 14 November against specialty chemicals manufacturer Rhodia. General Secretary Manfred Warda contacted the Paris-based company directly in efforts to bring the two sides together. 
 
The plant is in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and it is part of Rhodia’s Eco Services division, producing sulfuric acid and organic chemicals. The 135 members of Teamsters Local 5 went on strike following rejection of a company proposal given 1 November, but accepted a new three-year agreement with modifications on 13 November after managers and the bargaining committee reached agreement that day. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0911.rhodia.baton.rouge(1).jpg" width="250" height="188"/>
Teamsters Local 5 Members Last Week on Strike, a Strike that Ended on 13 November 
The strike was primarily over rising health care costs and co-payments that Teamster members were asked to make. The negotiated settlement includes wage increases in each of the three years. It also includes positive modifications for workers to an on-call procedure, or provisions for calling staff to work during their off hours. That was a further cause in the ten-day strike.  
 
The ICEM has a constructive Global Framework Agreement with Rhodia. The difficult American issue of private and for-profit health care delivery systems is generally the leading cause of US labour-management disputes.

Ten-Day Strike by US Union against Rhodia Ends on 14 November

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