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In the midst of national unrest facing Chile President Sebastián Piñera, Mineworkers’ Federations meet together today in Iquique to push forward support for 1,500 union members of Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi, a major affiliate of Chile Federation of Miners (FMC), the trade union covering miners and workers employed by the world’s major mining houses. 
 
The Mineworkers’ Union of Collahuasi and FMC have set 2 September as a 24-hour day for industrial action, mainly in protest to the company sacking six workers during the last 24-hour strike, on 29-30 July. The union’s planned strike is also in protest to the miners’ employer, Doña Ines de Collahuasi, reneging on collective agreement conventions put in place in the past. 
 
A delegation from Federación de Trabajadores del Cobre (FTC), the Mineworkers’ Federation representing state-run copper company Codelco’s staff, will likely participate in today’s meeting. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1108.collahuasi.jpg" width="215" height="161"/>
Doña Ines de Collahuasi, the world’s third largest copper mine, is jointly owned through 44% stakes each by AngloAmerican and Xstrata. The 29-30 July strike at Collahuasi was also done in support of a strike at another FMC major branch, Sindicato No. 1 de Trabajadores de Minera Escondida. Then, 2,375 miners where in a middle of a 15-day strike at Minera Escondida, the world’s largest copper producer, owned by BHP Billion (57%) and Rio Tinto (23%). 
 
In the past few weeks, FMC President Cristián Arancibia has visited several mines where workers are represented by FMC branches and urged support for Collahuasi miners as the global copper enterprise ramps up for even more production. 
 
Today’s meeting comes on the heels of a prior successful FMC-FTC solidarity meeting in Antofagasta – on 28 July – just prior to Collahuasi miners joining Escondida miners in a symbolic day-long shutdown of 10% of the world’s copper supply. Another coordinating meeting between the Collahuasi mineworkers’ branch and the Escondida branch on 20 August produced official support from the Escondida union. And the Cobres have met amongst themselves to discuss ways to support the FMC Collahuasi miners, as well as narrowing issues in which to engage Codelco on. 
 
Dialogue has occurred between mine management at Collahuasi and Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi, reports FMC branch President Manuel Muñoz, but that dialogue is undermined by supervisors intentionally giving workers mis-information. Relations between Doña Ines de Collahuasi and mineworkers have been frayed for over a year and the two sides were pitted in a bitter 33-day strike late last year that still is being felt. 
 
In a 24 August letter to the company, Muñoz said that the company’s Human Resource facilities have failed and the company is vulnerable to workers and supervisors leaving Collahuasi for other employment. He alluded to common misunderstandings that could get resolved in honest negotiations, but instead have become serious confrontations. 
 
Meanwhile, Codelco recognised that popular Chilean unrest in both mining and the general society is not good for the country’s business climate. Last week, the company and the Cobres signed a framework agreement intended to remove communication barriers between labour and management. The agreement sets the conditions under which workers’ opinions are fostered for shaping the future direction of the company. 
 
FTC President Raimundo Espinoza said the framework agreement gives FTC stature to help develop Codelco’s divisions “including an analysis of the current and future workforce and compliance with the law for contract workers.” The framework agreement results from a one-day strike on 11 July at Codelco mines over privatisation threats.

Mine Federations Meet Today in Support of Collahuasi Strike

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The Council of Global Unions (CGU), at its meeting in Geneva on 10 June, adopted two statements; one on labeling chrysotile asbestos in the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) category of the Rotterdam Convention, the other condemning the assault on public sector workers in the US state of Wisconsin, and endorsing Wisconsin as a pilot site in this week’s campaign launch of “Quality Public Services – Action Now.” 
 
The CGU, founded on 10 January 2007, is the coordinating body for nearly all Global Union Federations (GUFs), the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) of the OECD, and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). CGU’s charter calls for “a common determination to organise, defend human and trade union rights and labour standards everywhere, and promote the growth of trade unions for the benefit of all working women and men and their families.” 
 
The 10 June statement on chrysotile asbestos is aimed at this week’s Rotterdam Convention meetings in Geneva and urges an override past objections to PIC listing “by a tiny number of countries who have a vested interest in maintaining their lucrative trade in this potent human carcinogen.” 
 
The Rotterdam Convention establishes controls on the trade of toxic substances. With chrysotile asbestos, also known as white asbestos, unlisted, countries can export it without warning labels or safety precautions. The five biggest export nations of it are China, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Canada. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.wisconsin%20sign.jpg" width="93" height="128"/>
The CGU statement cites the mineral with causing 100,000 deaths annually and cautions that failure to classify it risks the spread of even more deaths particularly in the developing world. 
 
“The Global Unions asbestos policy stipulates that the only ‘safe use’ of asbestos is no use at all,” reads the CGU statement. “We call on Canada and other asbestos stakeholders to accept that the time has come to include chrysotile on the PIC list so that developing countries can make informed decisions on a subject of such deadly importance.” 
 
The CGU’s Wisconsin statement reads: “The attack that public employees and their unions are now facing in Wisconsin is part of a larger design by those who want to create a powerless and compliant workforce, and to plunder the common good of public services. 
 
“Turning back this tide is not a local or even national challenge. Trade unions worldwide and our allies are working together with a shared determination to organize, defend human and labor rights, promote the growth of unions and advance quality public services for the benefit of all people.” 
 
On 14 June, in a 4-3 ruling, the Wisconsin state Supreme Court struck down a lower court decision that blocked implementation of Governor Scott Walker’s law, clearing the way for the gutting of public sector bargaining rights for 300,000 teachers, nurses, and other public workers. (See a prior <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4308-Wisconsin-Eliminates-Public-Sector-Bargaining-Resistance-Continues " type="internal">ICEM report</a> on the midnight passage of Walker’s legislation here.) 
The Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) and other US unions will now bring the fight to federal courtrooms in further lawsuits to block Walker’s anti-social, anti-people measure.

Global Unions Issue Statements on Chrysotile Asbestos, Public Sector Assault in Wisconsin

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The ICEM and Public Services International (PSI) last week supported the OECD petition under the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises of joint US affiliate Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) against United Water, Suez Environnement, and GDF SUEZ for alleged environmental deceit and unfair labour practice complaints lodged by the US government against United Water. 
 
GDF SUEZ is signatory to a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with ICEM and PSI, and compliance with the OECD Guidelines is one framework inside the GFA. In a 14 June letter to the National Contact Points of the French and American governments, ICEM and PSI General Secretaries Manfred Warda and Peter Waldorff called on the respective contacts points to intervene and mediate the charges contained in UWUA’s petition. 

“We have been aware of United Water’s negligent social conduct in the United States since December 2010, first related to the felony indictment of the Clean Water Act by the US Justice Department, and later (May 2011) of the US National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) issuance of labor law complaints against United Water for breach of standard collective bargaining practices with the UWUA,” wrote the two Global Union Federations. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEM100.jpg" width="100" height="86"/>     <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/PSIlogo.jpg" width="90" height="90"/>
Under the GFA, ICEM and PSI had previously criticised GDF SUEZ over United Water’s derisive social conduct in America. United Water is wholly owned by Suez Environnement, which in turn is 35% by GDF SUEZ. The GFA, signed in November 2010, covers all GDF SUEZ businesses, including ones in which the company holds a minority stake. 
 
The UWUA’s OECD complaint cites the NLRB’s unfair labour practice complaints against United Water at two separate locations where the UWUA represents workers and is now negotiating with the company over renewal agreements. The US government agency charges management with failure to provide relevant information to the union related to bargaining. The GFA specifically references transparency in labour-management forums in pledging adherence to the OECD Guidelines and the ILO Tripartite Principles, both of which have clear language regarding exchange of information for “meaningful negotiations” in social partnerships. 
 
The alleged environmental infractions already had seen the ICEM and PSI take issue with United Water. Those charges stem from December 2010 when the Justice Department issued a criminal indictment charging that United Water intentionally manipulated E.coli bacteria monitoring tests at a wastewater treatment plant in the US state of Indiana. The indictment alleges that United Water engaged in a scheme in which it increased chlorine levels on government-mandated E.coli inspections, and then lowered chlorine input levels after such testing. The US government alleges United Water did this as a costs-savings measure. The company has pleaded not guilty to the charges. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4208-US-Affiliate-UWUA-Challenges-GDF-SUEZ-Inside-Global-Agreement" type="internal">ICEM report</a> on that alleged environmental crime here.)  
The UWUA filed the OECD petition on 8 June at the French embassy in Washington, DC, along with the American NGO Food and Water Watch, at the French embassy in Washington, DC, as well as to the US government’s National Contact Point. Under the OECD complaint process, both the US and French governments are obligated to forward the submission to the French parent companies and to the US subsidiary for a formal reply.

ICEM, PSI Join US, French OECD Complaint Against GDF SUEZ

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The ICEM Turkish affiliate ÇIMSE-İş, the Cement, Ceramics, Pottery and Glass Industry Workers’ Union, announced the successful conclusion of a sector-wide labour agreement in the cement industry for 5,800 workers at 45 cement plants. 
 
The new two-year collective agreement will run from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2012 and averts a strike called by the union’s presidential committee on 2 June. The agreement calls for a 7% increase in salaries plus an added YTL 25, as well as an increase in social benefits ranging from 7.6% to 27.81%. ÇIMSE-İş also managed to achieve a 100% extra payment for work performed on weekends. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.cimse is bargaining.png" width="250" height="112" alt=""/>
The union negotiated the agreement with the Cement Industry Employers’ Federation (CEIS) for which it had been bargaining with since 7 January. 
 
ÇIMSE-İş also reported that it had concluded talks in the ceramics industry, which it had been negotiating with the Soil Industry Employers’ Association of Turkey. The employers grouping covers such Turkish companies as Eczacıbaşı Yapı Gereçleri Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ, Vitra Karo Sanayi AŞ, Matel Hammadde (Serel Seramik) Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ, Tütk Ytong Sanayi AŞ, Ege Seramik Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ, and Ege Vitrifiye Sağlık Gereçleri Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ. 
 
This agreement covers 3,200 workers and is union members and is also valid from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2012. Wages will increase by 7% with an added YTL 30, while social benefit increases will average about 20%. 
 
“The ICEM salutes the achievement of ÇIMSE-İş,” said General Secretary Manfred Warda. “After a severe period in the materials industries brought on by the financial crisis, these two sector-wide agreements bring important improvements to Turkish workers and serve as excellent examples of mature industrial relations and social dialogue.”

Cement Agreement Reached in Turkey, Strike Averted

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Delegates to the 26th Congress of ICEM Turkish affiliate Lastik-İş, the Rubber, Chemical, Petroleum Workers’ Union belonging to DISK national labour centre, unanimously re-elected Abdullah Karacan as President for the upcoming four-year period. The Congress was held from 18-19 June in Istanbul, with 300 delegates and 150 guests attending, including ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Kemal Özkan and European Mine, Chemical, Energy Federation (EMCEF) Political Secretary Sylvain Lefebvre. 
 
The Congress also welcomed two prominent ex-officials of DISK, former President Süleyman Çelebi and former General Secretary Musa Çam, who were elected to the Turkey National Assembly as deputies during recent 12 June general elections. 
 
The Congress opened with a 40-minute documentary on 62-year-old Lastik-İş and then discussion occurred on activities of the union over the last four years with the challenges and successes. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.lastik is exco.png" width="214" height="160" alt=""/>
Lastik-İş Executive Committee, from left, Muharrem Özen, Alaaddin Sarı, Abdullah Karacan, İhsan Malkoç, Nejdet Ulusoy
“The Turkish trade union movement has been facing very difficult changes in terms of trade union rights and freedoms and as a result, the number of workers covered by collective agreements has dropped below 700,000 across the entire country,” said Karacan in his opening address. “Turkey does not deserve this picture and we need to reverse the trend.” 
 
Abdullah Karacan added, “According to the international statistics, Turkey, together with Mexico and Chile, are the top countries globally where income equality is the worst.” 
 
Turkey’s poor record on health and safety was also underscored, with statistics revealing that three workers are killed on average each day in work-related accidents. Lastik-İş delegates also voiced their intense struggle to limit precarious employment which shows a rising trend. The Congress applauded the Executive Committee with its performance in recruiting new members in existing and new plants, some of which are multinational companies such as Henkel from Germany, KCC from South Korea, as well as financial management and the performance of the union with new projects establishing social facilities that serve union members. The delegates also announced strong support for creation of new industrial union federations at global and European levels. 
 
At the end of the Congress, the new Executive Committee was introduced following re-election of President Karacan. The Executive is composed of Alaaddin Sarı, General Secretary; Nejdet Ulusoy, Head of Education, Press, Publication and Legal Affairs; Muharrem Özen, Head of Collective Bargaining and Organizing; and İhsan Malkoç, Head of Financial Affairs.

Turkish Lastik-İş Re-elects Abdullah Karacan President

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From International Metalworkers' Federation 
Indonesian unions yesterday criticized their government for not ensuring comprehensive social security for all Indonesian people as mandated in the Global Jobs Pact that was adopted by the International Labour Organization in 2009 and supported by the Indonesian government. 
 
The unions' criticism was in response to an address given by the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to a special session of the 100th International Labour Conference (ILC) on June 14, 2011 on the effects of the global economic crisis. 
 
In a statement submitted to the ILC by Indonesian trade unions and supported by the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF), the unions demanded that the Indonesian government comply with the Global Jobs Pact by providing comprehensive social security for all Indonesian people. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.indonesia imf.jpg" width="220" height="147"/>
9 May Indonesian Worker Demonstration
The statement points out that, "the people of Indonesia continue to face problems of low wages which are not comparable with the needs of a decent standard of living, unsafe working conditions with the expansion of contract work and outsourcing and the absence of comprehensive social security for all people." 
 
"In the context of social welfare, Indonesia is the most backward country in Southeast Asia in terms of delivering comprehensive social security for their people, in contradiction to the second portfolio of the Global Jobs Pact itself to "build a social protection system"," continues the statement. 
 
The unions argue that the existing Constitution of Indonesia and supporting legislation provides the basis for providing five social insurance programs covering health and accident insurance, pensions, retirement security and life insurance, but require the government to re-orientate the responsible state agencies to function on a not for profit basis. 
 
The statement, signed by nine Indonesian trade union organizations including IMF affiliated Indonesia Federation of Metal Workers' Unions (FSPMI), are members of the Action Committee for Social Security ( KAJS ) which is actively campaigning in Indonesia for improved social security, particularly health insurance for life and a mandatory pension fund for all. 
 
Adequate provision for social security particularly for the ever expanding number of workers in precarious forms of employment is one of the issues that will be discussed at the IMF Central Committee taking place in Jakarta, Indonesia in December 2011.

Indonesian Workers Demand Social Security for all

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Fraught by failed efforts in August to give contract workers their legitimate rights in the oilfields of south-central Colombia, Canada-based Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. and the government of Juan Manuel Santos will get a second chance to rectify the low pay, horrid work conditions, and sub-standard working terms of contract workers. 
 
That came because ICEM affiliate Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) led 4,000 contract workers in Meta Department, Colombia, on a strike and blockade early last week that cut output of South America’s third largest oil producer by 25%. The road blockades started on 18 September and continued until 21 September in rural areas near wells in the Rubiales and Quifa oilfields and in the city of Puerto Gaitan. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="146" height="66"/>
The strikes were violently broken up by 300 Colombia national riot police wielding batons and pitching tear gas. Police ordered a curfew for Puerto Gaitan. The strike, however, forced a tripartite agreement on 21 September between USO, the government’s Interior minister, and Pacific Rubiales after six hours of talks. 
 
The protocol agreement calls for a permanent arbitration board to be set up in Bogotá to address the issues of irregular workers labouring in the oilfields. Those issues include regularisation of employment, better pay and working conditions, and the right to join a union and bargaining collectively. USO, once the representative of only workers at state-run Ecopetrol, has championed the rights of contract workers in Colombia’s burgeoning oil sector. USO also is championing the re-hire of 800 contract workers who have been sacked in the recent past for trade union activity. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1109.USO rubiales.jpg" width="213" height="160"/>
Last week’s accord is not the first time that a tri-partite forum was set up to address and solve these issues. In August, Colombian Vice President Angelino Garzón chaired a meeting in which nine tripartite working groups made recommendations for fairness and justice. None of the submitted recommendations by the working groups were accepted by contractors or by Ecopetrol, prompting last week’s strike and blockades. 
 
USO is intent that poverty wages, exhausting work hours, and unlimited days of consecutive work disappear from the Colombian energy landscape. Several contractors along with Pacific Rubiales exploit irregular workers in the Llanos basin and other oil-rich basins of central and eastern Colombia. Pacific Rubiales, which owns Colombian oil company Meta Petroleum, operates oilfields in eastern Meta Department jointly with Ecopetrol and has been a magnet for labour unrest over the past several months. 
 
Two weeks ago, contract workers led by USO conducted similar strikes and blockades in Casanare department at the Corcel and Guatiquia upstream operations. Those facilities are run by another Canadian company, Petrominerales Ltd., which holds extensive Colombian production facilities both by itself and with Ecopetrol.

Colombia Oilfields: Government Must Now Address Contract Workers’ Issues

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French trade unionists employed at Lafarge last week began a hunger strike at the headquarters of the company in the Paris suburb of Saint-Cloud. Some 12 unionists from the company’s Frangey cement plant near Lézinnes, L’Yonne province, are protesting the company’s decision to close that facility. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4466-French-Unions-Conduct-4-Hour-Strike-at-Lafarge-Today" type="internal">prior ICEM report</a> here).  
 
Meanwhile, CFDT and CGT – the unions representing the 74 workers at Frangey – have continued today their stop-work actions at 14 French cement plants of Lafarge. The strikes started last week and were expected to escalate today. 
 
Lafarge announced on 25 May at an extraordinary Works Council meeting that it would close the Frangey plant in three stages between August 2011 and the end of 2012. The company said over-capacity, the small market the Frangey plant serves, and environmental considerations. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1109.lafarge france.jpg" width="250" height="161"/>
6 June Strike at Frangey
On Saturday, 24 September, the hunger strikers were on day five of their protest outside the Lafarge offices. They include the mayor of one of the small towns in the Burgundy region of France. The strikers are grouped in five small tents and were visited Friday and Saturday by a number of French politicians, including parliamentarian Nicolas Dupont-Aignan from l’Essone department. 
 
“I cannot stand to see businesses close and workers thrown out like dogs,” he said, refuting Lafarge’s reasons for closure. 
 
The CFDT delegate taking part in the hunger strike, Florent Gaden, said strikers will remain in front of the company’s offices until the world’s largest cement producer rescinds the closure. 
 
The Frangey cement plant does operate with proper environmental certification. It produces 300,000 tons of cement annually and has a system of cogeneration that serves 50% of the plant’s energy needs.

Hunger Strikers Protest Lafarge’s French Cement Plant Closing

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Some 300 members of Australia’s Construction, Forestry, Mine and Energy Union (CFMEU) are locked in a fierce battle with the American door and window-maker Jeld-Wen. Woodworkers of the CFMEU’s Forestry, Furnishing and Timber Building Products Division have been on strike – and locked out five days – at factories in four Australian states. 
 
The central issue is pay. CFMEU has been negotiating with Jeld-Wen subsidiaries Corinthian, William Russell Doors, and Stegbar since June over a new enterprise agreement, but the meagre wage increases offered over a three-year proposal would mean actual pay cuts for workers. In recent talks, the company reshuffled its pay offer but it still fell far short of Australia’s 4.5% cost-of-living rise. 
 
Workers at six factories – including St. Mary’s near Sydney, New South Wales; Dandenong, Cambellfield and Scoresby in Victoria; Regency Park near Adelaide, South Australia; and Canningvale, Perth, Western Australia – took 48-hour strike actions on 6 September. They then were hit by the five-day lockout on 8 September. Workers immediately undertook further and varying strike actions over the last two weeks at the six worksites. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1109.cfmeu jeld wen.jpg" width="242" height="161" alt=""/>
Photo: The Western Weekender
Global labour leaders attending the CFMEU’s National Construction Conference in Canberra recently visited the St Mary’s picket line on 16 September, and the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) has picked up the cause and is actively supporting CFMEU members. BWI has launched a protest campaign through its website. Please join that protest <a href="http://www.bwint.org/default.asp?Index=3685&Language=EN">here</a>.  
 
CFMEU National lead Negotiator Phil Davies said the revised pay offer given after the company’s lockout ended on 13 September is worse than Jeld-Wen’s original “non-negotiable” pay proposal. If accepted, one-third of all job classifications would actually see a further decline in real wages compared to inflation. “All our members want is fair and reasonable pay and conditions,” he said. 
 
The company is seeking to abolish an attendance-based bonus scheme as well. Meanwhile, the employer has sent letters to workers warning of future lockouts. 
 
Family-run and closely-held Jeld-Wen, started in 1960 by Richard Wendt, purchased the Corinthian factories in Australia and Asia on the cheap during the Asian financial crisis in the mid-1990s, and in 1999 bought Stegbar from a UK-based company. In North America, Oregon-based Jeld-Wen overextended itself in recent years with diversification into ski resorts and holiday properties at the exact time housing and real estate markets crashed. 
 
Next month, Canadian private equity company Onex is expected to close on a US$860 million infusion into Jeld-Wen, giving it 58% ownership of a company that operates 60 manufacturing and distribution sites in 22 countries. The deceased Wendt’s son, Roderick, will cease heading one of the world’s biggest door- and window-makers in exchange for an Onex selectee.

US Firm Slams Door on CFMEU Members Trying to Catch Inflation

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On 14 September 14, the ICEM held an education and awareness-raising event on ILO Convention 176, the Health and Safety in Mines Convention, at XIX World Congress on Safety and Health at Work (WCSHW), an important global occupational health and safety gathering. It took place at the Haliç Congress Center in Istanbul. 
 
The ICEM forum had the presence of two of the leaders of ICEM-affiliated mining unions, which indicated the commitment from them to get Turkey to ratify and implement the standards contained in Convention 176. Nurettin Akçul, President of Türkiye Maden-İş, the Mine Workers’ Union of Turkey, and President Eyüp Alabaş of Genel Maden-İş, the General Mine Workers’ Union of Turkey, participated and expressed the necessity of improved mine safety through adoption of global standards. 
 
ICEM Industry and Corporate Affairs Director Kemal Özkan introduced the panellists. He noted that the ICEM has made mine safety a top priority, and will vigilantly work to get more countries to ratify ILO Convention 176. 
 
The first panellist was Dr. Fikret Sazak, Director of Education Department for Maden-İş. He reviewed the deplorable occupational health and safety conditions in Turkey's mining sector, as well as generally. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1109.c176 istanbul.jpg" width="230" height="160" alt=""/>
From left to right: Brian Kohler, Glen Mpufane, Eyüp Alabaş, Kemal Özkan, Nurettin Akçul, Fikret Sazak, Turhan Oral
Neo-liberal policies of deregulation, privatization, and globalization are devastating the sector, he said. There is a large informal sector within the Turkish economy. Even within the formal sector, there is high unemployment, low union density, and therefore a big problem with contract labour, flexible labour arrangements, and other forms of precarious work. 
 
Turkish mines are poorly regulated, and there are not enough government inspectors to adequately enforce even those regulations that do exist. 
 
Sazak concluded that the solution lies in enacting effective and enforceable occupational health and safety laws, much more education and training, and worker participation through joint Health and Safety Committees. ILO Convention 176 sets out a minimum standard for all of these things, therefore it should be a high priority for the government of Turkey to ratify it. This will not happen without strong unions. 
 
ICEM Mining Officer Glen Mpufane entitled his presentation “First Aid Needed for Safety and Health in the Mining Industry.” He focused on various incentive systems used to compensate miners – both workers and managers. This creates a race to the bottom where all standards are sacrificed to the altar of profit. 
 
Surveying recent mining disasters, in Pakistan, New Zealand, the US, China, Russia, Mexico and other countries, Mpufane concluded that the role of trade unions was crucial. The ICEM predecessor, the Miners’ International Federation (MIF), played a major role in drafting and adopting ILO Convention 176 in 1995, and now the ICEM is the major organization campaigning for country to country ratification. 
 
Brian Kohler, ICEM Officer for Health, Safety and Sustainability, reviewed some of the provisions contained in ILO Convention 176, and the associated Recommendation 183. 
 
The main features include recommendations for a strong national legislative and regulatory framework, including inspection, required accident investigation, and reporting and record-keeping; employers' responsibilities to provide adequate training and supervision; hazard control following the principle of eliminating or controlling the hazard as close to the source of the hazard as possible and relying on personal protective equipment only as a last resort, and a recognition of workers rights to participate in health and safety policy-making at the workplace level and to remove themselves from danger. 
 
Other important provisions include topics such as risk assessment and control, health surveillance, and risk communication. Good engineering design is a starting point for a safe mine, stated Kohler. Effective emergency response procedures and equipment are also necessary. 
 
Kohler concluded by saying when it comes to occupational health and safety, governments and employers have responsibilities – workers have rights.

ICEM Holds Forum on ILO C. 176 at Safety Congress in Turkey

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