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<img height="55" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="138"/>
In Poland, workers of nine trade unions at KGHM Polska Miedz S.A., a publicly-traded copper and silver mining company in which the state holds 45% stake, won an extra month’s salary in collective negotiations due to the high copper prices. 
The unions demanded the increases for 17,000 workers after the company stated its 2005 profit projections would be doubled. After first offering a half-month’s extra pay, KGHM’s board met the demands of the unions, and the extra paycheck will be awarded prior to 4 November.

Polish Copper Workers Score Pay Gains

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The first issue of ICEM’s e-bulletin on HIV/AIDS was published in early October and can be found on the GUF’s website, <a href="http://www.icem.org" type="internal">www.icem.org</a>. 
The e-bulletin will be a regular monthly feature to ICEM’s information strategy on the pandemic, and gives useful links to materials and websites for union activists who desire to deepen their knowledge on the fight against HIV/AIDS.

ICEM's HIV/AIDS Project Gets Newsletter

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Union members at the Esso Union of Petroleum and Chemical Workers Federation of Thailand (PCFT) are in a pay dispute with Esso Thailand Co. Ltd. The 354 union members at a refinery in Sti-racha, Chonburi province, have staged protests at ExxonMobil’s Thai offices since 10 October over Esso’s refusal to meet adequate pay demands. 
Despite record profits and high petroleum prices, the company has stonewalled union demands to match pay increases equal to Thailand’s inflation rate. PCFT has reduced its pay demands in two government-conducted conciliation sessions and arbitration on the pay matter is scheduled for 4 November. 
Under Thai labour law, the Esso Union of ICEM affiliate PCFT is prohibited from striking because of its strategic importance in the energy industry.

Thai Affiliate in Pay Dispute with ExxonMobil

<img height="55" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief1.gif" width="138"/>
A strike by Energy and Petroleum Workers’ Union (CGTM) of Mauritania continues against contracting firm El Majabaat El Koubra Tours (MKT). The two sides were before the Labour Inspectorate of Mauritania on 27 October in efforts to settle the 14-day strike, but recommendations put forward by the ministry were rejected by MKT. 
The company, a transport and logistics provider for Australian exploration and development company Woodside Petroleum, sacked 16 workers earlier in October after it signed a protocol agreement with the union that included a first of November date for union elections. Ten of the 16 workers were to stand for union election

Mediation Fails to Resolve Contractor Strike in Mauritania

<img height="55" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief1.gif" width="138"/>
The ICEM has issued an urgent Circular to all affiliates for solidarity action on behalf of a branch of the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada concerning a five-month strike at a plant of Invista, a global chemicals company owned by US-based Koch Industries.
The Circular can be found at <a href="/?id=155&doc=1464" type="internal">/?id=155&doc=1464</a> and will be available in all statutory languages by clicking the respective language at the top-left of the homepage. ICEM has provided two model letters, one to the CEP local union as a sign of support, the other a protest letter to management in the US.

Urgent Action Needed in Support of Striking Canadian Union

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Croatian ICEM affiliate Autonomous Trade Union in Power Industry, Chemistry and Non-Metal Industry (EKN) has a merger agreement in place with another powerful union in the Balkan country. 
On 19 October, EKN’s Main Committee and the committee of the Metalworkers’ Trade Union of Croatia (SMH) signed a declaration of intent to merge to create the Confederation of the Trade Union of Metal and Chemical Industries.
The two unions will hold concurrent congresses in 2006 to formalize the merger, and a two-year process is proposed to coordinate the merger of affiliated unions into the new trade union, which will be independent and free from political party association.

ICEM Affiliate in Croatia to Merge with Metalworkers Union

The second issue of the ICEM e-bulletin on HIV/AIDS is here. At the beginning of this issue we would like to draw your attention to the new ICEM website <a href="http://www.icem.org" type="internal">www.icem.org</a>. Visit the website and click on HIV/AIDS. You will find the latest articles from ICEM sources. Links lead you to important HIV/AIDS sites of intergovernmental organisations and other Global Union Federations. 
You can also find useful materials such as the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work or the HIV/AIDS Mining Tool Kit produced by the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group, as well as the Annual Report of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the statistical updates on the pandemic published by UNAIDS. 
To introduce the subject of HIV/AIDS and the workplace, the ICEM has developed Power Point Presentations, which can be accessed through the website. There are versions for the regions Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and Latin America as well as a global generic version. Download and use them for your own awareness and prevention activities. 
 
We reiterate our call from the first issue of the e-bulletin. To spread the information on new agreements and campaigns and to build on best practices, affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org</a>. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome. 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an e-mail to <a href="mailto:press@icem.org">press@icem.org</a>. Please put “subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin” in the subject line. 
 
Unfortunately, the e-bulletin can only be published in English. For a free automated (non-ICEM) translation of this HIV-AIDS bulletin into other languages, you may want to try <a href="http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr">http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr</a> or <a href="http://www.google.com/language_tools">http://www.google.com/language_tools</a> and insert the following URL into the window “Translate a Web page“:  
<a href="/index.php?id=72&doc=1479 " type="internal">www.icem.org/index.php?id=72&doc=1479 </a> 
 
 
ICEM-JAF Asia and Pacific Seminar Focuses on HIV/AIDS 
 
The Asia and Pacific Seminar held in Tokyo on 27 October in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of ICEM-JAF, the coordinating body of ICEM affiliates in Japan, focussed on HIV/AIDS and the workplace. In his opening address, Kiyoshi Ochiai, the Chairperson of ICEM-JAF and the ICEM Asia and Pacific Region, stressed the increasing relevance of the topic for the region and the need for increasing workplace activities by unions.
After an introduction by ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, the Global HIV/AIDS Coordinator, Hans Schwass, gave a power point presentation and facilitated the session, which included country reports and presentations by Japanese organisations of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), such as PEOPLE Tokyo (Positive Living and Community Empowerment), the NGO-TU Forum on PLWHA collaboration and JaNP+ (Japanese Network of PLWHA). 
 
Trade union leaders from 14 countries and a large number of Japanese participants responded well to the message to intensify work on HIV/AIDS in the workplace and to increase awareness and prevention campaigns. The very timely seminar laid the foundation for the expansion of ICEM’s work in the Asia and Pacific region. 
 
 
New Lafarge Global Agreement Contains HIV/AIDS Clause 
 
The ICEM jointly with the IFBWW, the Global Union Federation for building and woodworkers, signed its twelfth global agreement with a multinational company. 
The agreement with the French-based building materials manufacturer Lafarge on corporate social responsibility and international industrial relations cites the ILO’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the ILO’s Tripartite Declaration of Principles on Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, the United Nation’s Global Compact and the OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. It contains a clause on HIV/AIDS committing the signatories to raise awareness and initiate prevention programmes in compliance with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work. 
 
 
WHO/Global Union Meeting Welcomes Universal Access 
 
In a historic first meeting in Geneva on 6 and 7 October, WHO/AIDS representatives from field offices in Africa and from the Head Office and trade union leaders from six sub-Saharan African countries together with representatives from Global Unions discussed the unions’ support for expanded access to treatment. Although the 3x5 Initiative had brought treatment to one million people by June 2005, the goal of the Initiative of three million by the end of 2005 will not be reached. 
The WHO recognises the role unions can play in scaling up treatment and achieving universal access. Meetings are planned at national levels in the six countries to develop sustaining partnerships between trade unions, WHO/AIDS, UNAIDS and ILOAIDS. 
 
 
COSATU Slams Government’s Response to HIV/AIDS
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has renewed its attack on President Thabo Mbeki and Health Minister Tshabalala-Msimang for failing to provide leadership in addressing the country’s HIV/AIDS pandemic. Speaking at the Treatment Action Campaign’s (TAC) annual conference, COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said that “denialism” meant the effects of HIV/AIDS were all too often ignored. 
The trade union federation has long been a supporter of TAC’s campaign to force the government to roll out antiretroviral treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. “We are sitting by while the biggest threat to our nation since apartheid is ruining our families and our communities,” said Vavi. 
 
According to TAC, about 10,000 people were receiving antiretroviral treatment at public health facilities. This meant that government had failed to reach its own (already low) target of 53,000 people. It is estimated that for every 10 people who needed antiretroviral treatment, only one was getting it through the public sector and another one through the private sector. 
 
(Source: Business Day, Johannesburg, 26 September 2005) 
 
 
Global Fund Approves Fifth Round of Grants 
 
At its eleventh board meeting in Geneva on 28-30 September, the Global Fund board approved 26 Round 5 grants in 20 countries that will cost US$382 million over the first two years, and provisionally approved, subject to sufficient funding being received next year, a further 37 grants that will cost US$344 million over the first two years. In total, these 63 "immediately approved" plus "provisionally approved" proposals will cost US$726 million over the first two years, and US$1.8 billion over five years. (The Fund approves proposals for five years but initially only commits funds for the first two years). 
 
The reason that some of the grants were only provisionally approved is that the Fund is short of cash (see article in e-bulletin No. 1); this, in turn, is because 2005 is the first year in which substantial amounts of money need to be spent on renewal of grants from earlier Rounds that have reached the end of their first two years. 
Grants that have only been provisionally approved will be formally approved in 2006 when sufficient donor pledges are received. However, any grants provisionally approved for which insufficient pledges have been received by the end of June 2006 will become "un-approved." Of the 63 grants to be eventually approved, AIDS grants account for 40% of funding while tuberculosis and malaria grants account for 27% each with the remaining funding dedicated to strengthen health systems. Africa receives 66% of the new funding. 
 
The board made no decision as to when Round 6 will take place. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Press Release of 30 September and Global Fund Observer Newsletter, Issue 51 of 3 October 2005) 
 
The GFO is an independent source of news, analysis and commentary about the Global Fund. The Newsletter is provided free of charge; to receive it send an e-mail to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 2

In Canada, a tentative agreement was reached in Miramichi, New Brunswick, on 13 August, between the workers at the UPM Kymmene mill, represented by CEP Local 689, and the company management. The result of 12 days of negotiations, this agreement is hoped to be the start of a solution that would bring an eight-month long struggle to an end, which shut down paper production completely in Miramichi. Amongst the 700 employees on strike for a new collective agreement are 400 former employees from the kraft pulp mill, which closed permanently in December 2004. Issues such as severance and pensions were part of the contract under discussion. A large majority of the members of Local 689 has in the meantime voted in favour of the proposed agreement.

Canadian Paper Strike Ends in Miramichi, New Brunswick

The first industry-wide industrial strike in the South African gold sector in 18 years ended on 10 August when an improved wage offer was accepted by the members of ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and two other smaller unions. Taking part in a strike for which the support was so overwhelming that there was no need for a picket line, around 110,000 workers had stayed of work, affecting all large enterprises in the sector, such as Goldfields, Harmony and AngloGold Ashanti. The compromise was reached between the South African Chamber of Mines, negotiating on behalf of the gold companies, and the trade unions, agreeing on a pay rise between 6 and 7%.

Wage Gains End South African Gold Mining Strike

Placer Dome, the world's third-biggest gold miner, faces a global trade union campaign aimed at reversing the company's recently announced job cuts and pressing it to repair the severe environmental damage that it has caused in a number of countries where it operates. 
 
Gold mining workers' leaders from around the world unanimously adopted a resolution to that effect this afternoon, at the close of a World Gold Forum held in Durban, South Africa. The event was organised by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), whose membership includes gold mine workers on all continents. 
 
The forum also agreed proposals for safeguarding the future of the world gold industry as a whole. 
 
The World Gold Forum precedes the ICEM World Congress (Durban, 3-5 November). This will map out a trade union response to globalisation. 
 
Today's resolution was sponsored by South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which is campaigning for the reinstatement of 2,895 workers recently retrenched at Placer Dome's Western Areas joint venture near Johannesburg. The sackings represent a cut of around 40 percent in the company's South African workforce, and are a potentially explosive issue in a country which has an unemployment rate of about 30 percent. 
 
Seconding the action call was Australian mining union the CFMEU. In solidarity with the South Africans, CFMEU members will picket Placer Dome offices in Australia next Monday morning - just a few hours after an NUM rally at Western Areas on Sunday 31 October. 
 
Full text of today's resolution: 
 
 
Noting that: 
 
1. Placer Dome is a Canadian transnational having mining interests in many countries. 
 
2. Placer Dome has a terrible record of destroying jobs and the environment and a disregard for the communities, wherever they have invested, in pursuit of profits. 
 
3. The owners and management have a history of union bashing while projecting itself as the best gold mining company on the earth. 
 
 
Believing that: 
 
1. Global investment should be socially responsible and must not undermine human rights, trade union rights, the community and the environment. 
 
2. In those countries where investments are made, collective bargaining conventions must be respected. A balance between global rules and the scope of domestic regulation has to be struck. 
 
 
We therefore resolve that: 
 
1. Placer Dome be targeted for an international campaign by the ICEM. 
 
2. This campaign should entail demands on the reinstatement of retrenched workers in the Western Areas Gold Mine Joint Venture; and restoration of the environment destroyed in the Philippines, Chile, Peru, Papua New Guinea and Australia. 
 
3. Placer Dome be pressured to sign a Global Agreement on Industrial Relations with the ICEM. 
 
4. A solid foundation for this campaign be built by organising a workshop early in the year 2000 for representatives from countries where Placer Dome has operations. A common platform for worker rights and working conditions and a programme for international worker solidarity must be agreed at this workshop. 
 
5. Unions affiliated to the ICEM must, where necessary, make available organisers and leaders to give direct practical assistance to worker struggles and organise the unorganised in Placer Dome operations throughout the world.

Placer Dome: Unions Launch Worldwide Campaign

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