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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Negotiations between United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9508 and Brazilian mining company Vale broke off late last night, 24 January, in St. John, Newfoundland, in failed efforts to end the 25-week strike by 250 union members at Goose Bay and Voiseys Bay, Labrador. Three days of steady talks over the weekend, guided by a provincial mediator from Newfoundland/Labrador, failed to bring the two sides any closer to terms. 
 
Meanwhile, 3,100 striking Steelworkers marked six months on picket lines opposite Vale in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, a fortnight ago. The company, on 19 January, upheld its promise to re-start the Copper Cliff nickel smelter using managers and replacement workers to fire one of two furnaces. 
 
In eastern Canada, an announcement a week ago that the first full round of negotiations since February 2009 would begin on 22 January brought hope that copper, nickel, and cobalt mining in Goose Bay, as well as operations at a slurry facility in Voiseys Bay would resume. Vale had submitted the framework of an agreement ten days ago, but this past weekend’s bargaining proved Vale is seeking the same set of concessions. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910.vale.ship.2.jpg" width="257" height="233"/>
Hong Kong flagged ship operators receive Voiseys Bay Petition, 9 October 2009
“The company here still insists on removing the nickel bonus and they didn’t deal at all with our issues,” lead negotiator and USW District 6 Representative Boyd Bussey told the ICEM Sunday evening. “If Vale thought they were picking off a weak link in this strike, they were wrong. We’ll be on picket lines until we get a good deal.” 
 
The key item that separated the two sides in talks remains Vale’s insistence on removing the nickel bonus, a wage supplement that is tied to the rise and fall of the market price of nickel. Contract language, monetary issues, and a company demand to give it more latitude on use of temporary workers also separates the two sides. Local 9508 is an amalgamated USW branch union with five units, three – miners, catering staff, and security – that have been on strike against Vale since 1 August 2009. Another unit, a Vale sub-contracted group of port workers employed by an Aboriginal-owned company called TSI, has a separate labour agreement expiring early in 2010. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910.vale.ship.1.jpg" width="290" height="218"/>
The focus will now be on whether or not Vale will restart copper and nickel mining in Goose Bay using replacement workers. The speculation is that Vale needs nickel concentrates to feed its smelting operations in Thompson, Manitoba, as well as nickel for the re-start of Copper Cliff, where USW Local 6500 is on strike. The company might also be expected to capitalize on high copper prices, with the high-grade red metal mined and processed in the maritime province moved to market. In 2008, the company produced 77,500 tonnes of contained nickel and 55,400 tonnes of high-grade copper concentrates from its Vale-Inco Newfoundland and Labrador operations. 
 
The start-up of the Copper Cliff smelter was long advertised by the company. Operation of one of two furnaces at Copper Cliff, however, is not expected to give Vale anywhere near 50% of smelting capacity from the Sudbury-area facility. Vale is getting minimal production from two of six mines in northern Ontario, as well as token output from its Claribelle refining operation. 
 
On 13 January, the six-month mark of the strike in Sudbury and Port Colborne, the USW filed a bad-faith bargaining complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board in Toronto on Vale-Inco’s entrenched negotiations stand. Included in that complaint is an internal June 2009 Vale document that the company intends to pare mining jobs in northern Ontario, as well as strategically mine only high-grade ore from the region, thus reducing life expectancy of nickel reserves. The USW believes this indicates Vale is not managing the province’s reserves in the long-term best interests of workers and rural communities. 
 
On the six-month anniversary of the Ontario mining strike, over 1,000 miners and their families marched and manifested in Sudbury. The event included an environmentally-friendly balloon release, with each balloon set aloft representing C$4 million of Vale’s profits that has fled from Canada. 
 
The ICEM, together with the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), will continue ratcheting up pressure on the Brazilian company so that Vale returns to bargaining tables both in Labrador/Newfoundland and Ontario with fair contract offers. The USW Local 6500 strike website can be found here <a href="http://www.fairdealnow.ca">www.fairdealnow.ca</a>.

Talks Prove Futile in Ending Vale’s Eastern Canada Mine Strike

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The Guyana Bauxite & General Workers’ Union (GB&GWU) is seeking justice against the union-smashing affront by Russian metals company RusAL, the world’s second largest aluminum producer. The union has filed a racial discrimination complaint over RusAl’s sacking of 57 union activists, a move made necessary when neither the prime minister nor the minister of Labour, Human Services, and Social Security intervened to protect Guyana’s labour law. 
 
The dispute started in November 2009, following pay talks between GB&GWU and RusAl, the 90% owner of Bauxite Co. of Guyana Inc. (BCGI) at the Aroaima and Kwakwani mines in central Guyana. RusAl managers submitted three counter-proposals for the workforce of 500 to consider, and after miners voted to accept one, the company rescinded it and announced on 1 December that it no longer recognized GB&GWU, a blatant violation of the Trade Union Recognition Act. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Guyana.png" width="220" height="101"/>
Allegedly, the company subsequently said at a workplace meeting that those responsible for promoting the accepted offer would be the first in line for retrenchments. BCGI had hoped to tie a wage increase with some 70 redundancies, a counter-proposal that miners did not accept. 
 
Miners began a lawful strike on 21 November at the Aroaima mine. Three days into the strike, BCGI issued letters of termination to 57 strike leaders, all African descendants. Despite several urgent calls and letters to government officials to press RusAl on the law infractions, very little has been done. The discharge letters judged the workers “insubordinate, refusing to obey instructions” and guilty of “misconduct.” 
 
The race charge was heard before the Ethnic Relations Commission on 8 January. The GB&GWU is asking the commission to convene a full public inquiry into the alleged discriminatory sackings because a “bilateral initiative … to engage the union; then engage the company; then engage the Minister … will not work.” 
 
An 8 January letter by the union and the 57 discharged miners to Prime Minister Samuel Hinds expressed frustration at government inaction: “We were never charged, never summoned to answer the charges … never given a hearing yet the company has pronounced us guilty of charges. Today, as we continue to take a stand for our rights, the Minister of Labour has thus far taken the position that we do not have any rights or any recourse for justice.” 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/charlessampson.guyana.jpg" width="115" height="192"/>
GB&GWU General President Charles Sampson
GB&GWU General President Charles Sampson, in a letter to Labour, Human Services, and Social Security Minister Mansoor Nadir, said he was “appalled” that you “have not seen it fit to intervene … to immediately put an end to this national insult.” Nadir, for his part, publicly stated in December that “we should let this festive (holiday) season of goodwill take its course and hopefully both parties will exercise more generosity towards each other.” 
 
Six weeks later, there is little generosity shown the 57 mining families who are now impoverished in a poverty-stricken country. Guyana’s Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board did hold a 12 January hearing on the unilateral de-authorization pronouncement by RusAl, and it also heard first-hand how BCGI is now coercing workers to sign waivers to abandon the union. 
 
The ICEM is disturbed that Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, himself a former miner and human rights proponent, has not been in the forefront of this dispute, seeking reinstatement for the 57 and prohibiting RusAl from trampling on the country’s labour code. The ICEM also cites the Russian mining and metals multinational with yet another glaring example of the company’s complete disregard toward international labour and human rights standards.

Guyana Bauxite Workers’ Union Bitter at RusAl, Government

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
At a factory blockade of a Michelin tire plant in Laem Chabang, Thailand, on 20 March 2009, workers protested against a harsh 35% pay cut. Following the manifestation, 22 union activists were arrested, suspended from their jobs, with management taking out criminal charges against them. (See ICEM news release on that <a href="/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/3132-ICEM-Condemns-Lockout-of-Thai-Workers-by-Michelin " type="internal">here</a>.) 
 
Those 22 unionists, members of ICEM-affiliated Petroleum and Chemical Workers’ Federation (PCFT), were finally reinstated to their jobs on 18 January, after attending a special training session specifically for them. 
 
However, despite this positive but delayed piece of justice, the conflict is far from over. Ten of the 22 are still facing criminal charges, charges the ICEM believes are unjust because they relate to legitimate trade union activity. The president of the Michelin Tyre Workers’ Union of the PCFT is one of those facing criminal proceedings, scheduled to take place at the Criminal Court of Pattaya by the public prosecutor of the province. The trade unionists have been forced to take bail. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0905.thai.michelin.JPG" width="270" height="129"/>
Michelin Tyre Workers’ Union leaders of the PCFT, from left, Thanakorn Somsin, Rangsan Monchaisong, and Samai Koonswat
The cases are expected to be processed in the next month. 
 
Trade union members continue to face discrimination on a daily basis inside the Michelin factory, a workplace that employs 1,500. They receive lower pay than non-union members and have witnessed management take away holiday allowances in 2009. 
 
The March 2009 bargaining dispute was settled through successful tripartite discussions, brought forth by pressure from the ICEM, FCE-CFDT of France, and Michelin’s European Works Council. The parties called for immediate intervention by Michelin headquarters then in France. 
 
In other Michelin Asia-Pacific news, the company announced closure of a Japanese factory in Ota, 50 kilometres north of Tokyo. The closure will occur in July 2010 and will see 380 employees sacked from their jobs. The reason given by Michelin is that production costs at the plant are too high. Michelin has entered into talks with the union to relocate workers from the Ota plant into other jobs.

Michelin Unionists at Thai Tyre Factory Still Face Discrimination

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF) and the All-Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (APLF) jointly held a manifestation on 13 January at the Quetta Press Club to protest safety inaction by Balochistan provincial authorities in coal mining. In the first half of January, at least 21 miners perished in roof cave-ins and methane gas explosions. 
 
The federated mining unions expressed outrage that neither Balochistan authorities nor the Chief Inspectorate of Mines removed the bodies of five dead miners in the days following the tragedies. On 2 January, a gas explosion at the Al-Rahman mine near Marwar killed ten miners, including three Afghan workers. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1001.pakistan.protest.jpg" width="290" height="177" alt=""/>
The blast, which caused a cave-in, occurred 2,000 metres underground. And then on 11 January, two separate mine accidents occurred at the Habibullah Coal Mines Co. near Spin Karez. Three miners died when a roof collapsed, while eight others were trapped and killed following a blast at the mine in the Marwar coal fields. 
 
Speakers at the unions’ 13 January protest said governmental authorities demonstrated “criminal silence” over the loss of lives, as well as denouncing Balochistan officials for not extending financial assistance to the families of the deceased. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1001.Sultan Muhammad Khan.pakistan.jpg" width="160" height="238" alt=""/>
Sultan Muhammad Khan
PCMLF Secretary General Sultan Muhammad Khan called it a travesty that miners are denied social benefits, and he said the fact that five miners from the first incident are still entombed at Al-Rahman “speaks volumes about the performance of the Mines Inspectorate.” 
 
Other mine union officials that condemned the inaction, as well as the lack of preventative safety measures in the province’s mines included Bakht Maweb Yousatzai, Abdul Sattar, Syed Altaf Ilussain Shah, Muhammad Jamil, And Rehmatullah Baloch. The mine union leaders said the average death rate in Balochistan coal mining, in southwestern Pakistan, had been 86 known deaths, but that this rate has increased of late because of lack of safety measures in mines.

Pakistan Mine Unions Protest Killings in Balochistan Coal Pits

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Four contractors of Royal Dutch Shell, who were kidnapped in Nigeria while enroute to work at a power plant on 12 January, were released early last week. The four, three British nationals and one Colombia national, work for Shell sub-contractor NETCO-Dietsmann NV. The Colombian expatriate, Fabien Sanchez, was hospitalized after winning his freedom with shrapnel wounds. 
 
The four were abducted by despicable thugs between on the northeast border of Rivers State where it junctures with Abia State. A police escort was shot and killed, and the driver was wounded. The criminals reportedly demanded a US$2 million ransom. Police put up a US$16,000 reward for information leading to the crime. It was not clear if ransom money was paid to win the freedom of the expatriate workers or not. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Nigeria.png" width="250" height="115" alt=""/>
The Rivers State branch of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) condemned the crime. Branch Chairman Hyginus Chika Onuegbu called on state police forces in all the oil-rich states surrounding Port Harcourt to beef up road patrols around border junctions, since this is where kidnappings and killings happen. 
 
The kidnapped workers are part of a team of contractors working on the Afam VI power station, managed and 30% owned by Shell. They work for the sub-contractor NETCO-Dietsmann, a 40/60 joint venture between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation subsidiary, National Engineering and Technical Co., and Dietsmann, an upstream oil services company based in the Netherlands. Capital improvements are being made on Afam VI in order that higher flows of liquid natural gas will double the power plant’s capacity to 650 megawatts. 
 
The names of the British contractors that were kidnapped are John Bennet, Kevin Gray, and Martin Phillip.

Kidnapped Shell Workers in Nigeria Released, One Injured

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Workers’ Memorial Day this year will use the moniker “Unions Make Work Safer,” as global labour moves 28 April – the Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers – as the one day that every day must bring in the fight for safe, healthy, and risk-free workplaces. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has designated that theme for 2010 in order to emphasize the vital role trade unions play in constantly improving occupational health and safety. 
 
In the UK, the government became one of over 20 countries worldwide to officially designate 28 April as Workers’ Memorial Day when Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper announced formal recognition of the day on 28 January. After beginning consultations in July 2009, it became clear to the government that the growing number of observances and health/safety renewal commitments on 28 April each year merited official designation. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/international.commemoration.day.candle.logo.gif" width="46" height="276" alt=""/>
What UK recognition now means is that the government will encourage commemorations of the day throughout the country, with ministers committed to support and promote public commemorations. “Workers’ Memorial Day has been an important date in the trade union calendar for many years and we look forward to working with ministers to increase its profile,” stated Trades Unions Congress (TUC) General Secretary Brendan Barber. 
 
The ITUC expects 2010 to exceed the 10,000 activities that occurred in over 100 countries around 28 April 2009. The ITUC itself will produce and release background materials, campaign ideas, and additional tools as 28 April 2010 nears. 
 
“Workers’ Memorial Day gains more local, national, and international recognition with each passing year,” stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “And it is only fitting this year to draw attention to workers who, through their unions, have done so much to improve everyday workplace safety and health.” 
 
The facts bear this out. In Canada, a recent report by the Ontario Safety and Health Agency found that 79% of unionised worksites report high compliance with health and safety legislation, while between 54% and 61% of non-union workplaces report such compliance. 
 
In Australia, unionised workplaces are three times more likely to have a safety committee and twice as likely to have performed a safety audit as non-union-sites. 
 
The ICEM encourages affiliates to begin preparing now for 28 April. The day became officially recognized by the ILO in 2001 as the “International Day of Action for Safety and Health at Work,” but had its origins before then. The ITUC marks the day to 1996 when the UN lit Commemorative Candles for the 188 victims of the Kader toy factory in Thailand in 1993. 
 
But the commemoration day has its true roots in the Canadian trade union movement, where unionists worked for several days before the Canadian Parliament in 1989 passed Bill C-223, designating 28 April as the official “Day of Mourning” for the North American country.

‘Unions Make Work Safer’ Theme for 28 April, Now Official Day in UK

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
German union IG Metall and the employers’ federation Gesamtmetall set the tone inside Germany for 2010-2011 bargaining when the two sides came to an early and enlightened accord on a pair of collective agreements covering 700,000 metal and electronics workers in North Rhine-Westphalia state. The agreement, two months ahead of schedule, is sure to serve as the boilerplate for collective agreements contracts covering 3.4 million German workers in the metals and electronics sectors. 
 
Most profoundly, the new North Rhine-Westphalia pilot contracts guarantee job security until the middle of 2012 and establish a precedent-setting protocol against job redundancies as a lesson to this global economic crisis. 
 
The 25-month pair of agreements was crafted congenially in Dusseldorf between IG Metall and the employers’ federation in two sets of talks that concluded in the early hours of 18 February. One pact defers a wage increase until spring 2011, while the other assures no operational redundancies will occur before 30 June 2012. This agreement also sets new and far-reaching regulations on shortened work-time, including partial wage adjustments for short-term work and lowered costs for employers who utilize short-time work. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1002.igmetall.agreement.gif" width="120" height="120"/>
A key and unifying part of the job-security agreement, called the “future in work” pact, is a joint and vigorous call on the German government to extend crisis-fostered benefits beyond the end of this year for workers taking shorter work weeks. It also guarantees that shorter work weeks, from 35 to 28 hours with pay of 29.5 hours, will be an option, with that short-time work to be met with sickness, vacation, and Christmas benefits based on 12 months work. 
 
A 2.7% wage increase will take effect around April 2011, with Works Councils given the mandate to negotiate that sum within two months prior or two months after that date. Between May 2010 and March 2011, two single, one-off payments totaling €320 per worker will be made. An important underlying element to the accord is that it allows employers to undertake the precise planning necessary to dig out of the crisis. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/People/Berthold Huber IG Metall.jpg" width="142" height="158"/>
IG Metall President Berthold Huber
IG Metall President Berthold Huber termed the job protection provisions of the agreement “a good result in securing jobs in the biggest economic crisis in 80 years.” He added that the government must now do its part to supplement the agreement with extended social insurance benefits. And more precise to the German economy, the agreements serve as a bellwether statement that mass job losses weaken purchasing power far more than nominal wage increases do to spike buying power. 
 
The agreements not only will protect the jobs of hundreds of thousands of workers but equally, they assure that German enterprises will retain the skilled and seasoned staff in a sector so crucial to Germany’s economy. 
 
By late last week, IG Metall and the metal, electronics employers were already tabling the accord in negotiations in Baden-Württemberg state. And this week the novel social contracts will come before the parties in Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, talks that take place in Hannover.

German Metalworkers, Employers Reach Historic Job Security Pact

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The ICEM-affiliated General Union of Electricity Workers and Technicians in Basra, Iraq, has been faced with a hostile new general manager of the electricity network in Southern Iraq. The union, led by President Hashmeyia Muhsin Saadawi, is attempting to gain wage arrears for power station security guards, who have been illegally refused back wages. 
 
The salary arrears are for overtime work and work that had previously been approved by management. The union has been attempting to negotiate the issue with the manager throughout September, but Hashmeyia Muhsin recently told the ICEM that she has grown frustrated with his intransigence. Of late, the new general manager admitted that “the security guards are entitled to the allocation of extra hours, but I am not paying them, so let them complain to the Inspector-General or any other authority.” 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0707 iraqHashmeyaElectUnion.jpg" width="190" height="128" alt=""/>
President Hashmeyia Muhsin Saadawi
The claim of the Basra Electricity Workers and Technicians is clear; security guards at the company are contractually allocated 154 working hours per month, distributed over morning, evening, and night shifts. However, those workers work an average of 192 hours per month, and rightfully expect overtime pay. 
 
On 21 September, a large number of the affected security guards, joined by other members of the union, assembled in front of the headquarters of the authority for Power Transmission in Southern Iraq. That action, which illustrated the level of solidarity for the security workers by all segments of workers in the union, did succeed in attracting the attention of the Department of the Inspector General, as well as the Electricity Commission of local government. 
 
But a settlement to the issue still has not been reached. The ICEM will continue to follow and report on this story as, hopefully, positive developments occur.

Iraqi Electricity Trade Union Faces Intransigent Manager in Southern Iraq

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The ICEM has strengthened its connections with mining unions in Albania after attending the 5th National Congress of the Union of Independent Trade Unions of Albania (BSPSH). Two ICEM affiliates, the Independent Trade Union of Mines and the Trade Union Federation of Chemical and Metal Workers are key members of the BSPSH. 
 
The BSPSH and the Confederation of Trade Unions of Albania (KSSH), a second trade union confederation, have been under attack by the government of Albania after they were forcibly and illegally removed from their offices and had computers and records destroyed or confiscated. The ICEM pledged to support efforts to have the property of the trade unions returned. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910.albania.miners.conference.jpg" width="244" height="189" alt=""/>
BSPSH Congress
Joe Drexler, ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs, represented the ICEM at the Congress and saluted the work of the BSPSH in developing democratic trade unions. He particularly noted the historical contributions of miners and their president, Kezim Kalaja, who in 1991 led a general strike that ushered in an era of political change and democracy that allowed trade unions to develop. Kalaja also became president of the BSPSH and was re-elected at the 5th Congress by acclamation in recognition of his decades of leadership. 
 
Also attending the Congress were national federations from Italy, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Serbia, and Poland. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910.albania.miners.jpg" width="226" height="222" alt=""/>
Joe Drexler & Kezim Kalaja, centre
Drexler visited an underground copper mine and enrichment plant, owned and operated by a Turkish-based company, in the Northeast of the Albania. President Kalaja and Gjon Zeka, the trade union’s regional secretary, joined the tour. 
 
Albania is only one of only 23 countries which have ratified International Labor Organization Convention 176 on Health and Safety in Mines.

ICEM Strengthens Connection with Trade Unions in Albania

On 15 October 2009, 50 workers from four Dutch unions, including ICEM affiliates FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Bedrijvenbond, will assemble at the European headquarters of Sappi in Brussels. There, between 14h00 and 15h00 European time, they will present a petition signed by nearly 800 paperworkers at Sappi’s Nijmegen and Maastricht mills. 
 
Since early in the summer, the unions have been unsuccessful in negotiating a new collective agreement with Sappi at these two mills. Finally on 17 September, Sappi presented a final offer. It called for a 0.5% increase effective 1 July 2009, and a 0.9% increase on 1 April 2010. Workers rejected it with better than a 95% vote. 
 
What’s more, Sappi seeks to eliminate days off that senior workers, age 55 and over, have accrued due to longevity of service. These no-work days, called “seniorendagen” in Dutch, are very few per year for each worker of that age, but Sappi made it clear in negotiations that its wage offer was so low because Dutch workers insist on keeping this rightful benefit. These no-work days have been earned by Dutch staff who have long years of service, and they should not have to be given up. 
 
Below, please find a letter that ICEM is hopeful your union can send to the European CEO of Sappi on 15 October. Please cut and paste it (or feel free to change it to fit your union’s style), attach it your letterhead and send to the e-mail address of Mr Berry Wiersum, as well as the two fax numbers of Sappi’s Brussels office. 
 
It is important to do this on Thursday, 15 October, in order to support our Dutch colleagues who will be traveling to Brussels to present a petition on that day. Thank you for your support and initiative on behalf of our colleagues in The Netherlands.
Please be sure to copy your letter to the following:
Ans van den Akker
<a href="mailto:ansvandenakker@orange.nl">ansvandenakker@orange.nl</a>
Ilja Philippen-Nijssen
<a href="mailto:I.Philippen@bg.fnv.nl">I.Philippen@bg.fnv.nl</a>
Mariska Razoux Schultz-Helbig
<a href="mailto:M.Razouxschultz@bg.fnv.nl">M.Razouxschultz@bg.fnv.nl</a>
(do not hesitate to send your own solidarity message to these trade union leaders.)
 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/paper logo.jpg" width="280" height="76"/>
 15 October 2009 
 
Mr. Berry Wiersum 
CEO, Sappi Fine Papers Europe 
154 Chaussée de la Hulpe 
B-1170 Brussels 
Belgium 
 
Transmit to <a href="mailto:berry.wiersum@sappi.com">berry.wiersum@sappi.com</a> and fax numbers +32 2 676 9601 and +32 2 676 9660 
 
Dear Mr. Wiersum: 
 
Our trade union, representing pulp and paper workers, has learned of the contract dispute at Sappi’s two mills in the Netherlands, at Nijmegen and Maastricht. We understand that in late September, 800 workers at these two mills, represented by all Dutch unions solidly rejected a very inferior company proposal. 
 
We want it to be made known that Sappi’s pay offer over the next 21 months is insulting. We also want it to be made known that Sappi’s insistence on taking away the “seniorendagen” for workers with long-time service to the company is unfair. Workers age 55 and over have earned these days off and Sappi must adhere to contractual commitments it has made in the past. 
 
We urge you to instruct your managers in the Netherlands to return to dialogue with the workers’ representatives and raise the level of salary adjustments over the next two years, as well as assuring that senior workers retain what they have earned in their many long years of employment service to Sappi. 
 
Our union will be watching closely this dispute at your two mills in the Netherlands, and we intend to take further action if need be. We will strongly support our Dutch colleagues in all ways possible, and urge you now to prevent a dispute that will only deepen if Sappi does not return make an acceptable contract offer to Nijmegen and Maastricht workers. Thank you. 
 
Sincerely,

Sappi Dispute in Dutch Paper Mills; Act 15 October 2009

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