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New Zealand’s unions will embark on a third round of stop-work actions at Carter Holt Harvey’s (CHH) wood and paper operations starting tomorrow. ICEM affiliates Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and the National Distribution Union are protesting the company’s inferior pay offers of 2.8% to 4%. NZ unions have set a minimum pattern of 5% across all sectors. On 12 September, workers at five CHH wood products plants and one paper converting operation engaged in one-day strikes, and subsequent rolling work stoppages occurred at other jobsites. Workers at one of the company’s pulp and paper mills—Kinleith—are also protesting a poor pay offer. A set of three-day talks between CHH and EPMU there concluded on 2 September with the company offering only 4% and less for some job classifications. The labour unrest comes when the 50.5% majority stakeholder of CHH, US based International Paper Co., has received a US$1.5 billion sale offer for sale to NZ’s richest individual, Graeme Hart and his Rank Group Investment Ltd. CHH’s board of directors, however, has recommended shareholders vote down the offer, saying it is 9.1% under the company’s true market value.

Carter Holt Harvey Targeted over Wage Deficiencies

ICEM Jordanian affiliate General Trade Union of Workers in Mining and Metal Industries has promised to strike if their demands are not met for deeds to 100 housing units built near the Shidiyeh Mines in Maan, Jordan. The union is demanding the housing be turned over to miners and their families, as promised by King Abdullah, before Jordan Phosphate Mines Co. (JPMC) is privatised, which is expected by the end of the year. The Jordanian trade union, protecting the rights of the 1,350 JPMC workers, warned it will stand firm on the housing rights issue as a precursor against curtailment of any set of rights or workers’ benefits once the company is privatised.

Jordanian Affiliate Demands Housing for Miners

A start-up gold mining project in Ghana turned to violence on 2 September when three persons were injured by police gunfire. Police were attempting to disperse an angry group of workers who lost their jobs following Newmont Ghana Gold Mining Ltd.’s construction of mine milling plants. The workers along with persons from the town of Yamfo, Northern Brong Ahafo, had blocked a street that prevented Newmont’s buses from carrying workers to jobsites. Newmont, 100% owned by Newmont Mining Corp. of the US, the world’s leading gold miner, purchased a tract of Ghana’s Sefwi gold belt early this decade, and is expected to commence production in 2006 from two sites in northern Ghana of stated gold reserves totaling 16.5 million ounces. The company established a hiring procedure for all new jobs but when existing workers from the construction phase did not immediately re-apply, Newmont closed off the recruitment process and hired new workers.

Violence at Newmont Mining's Start-up Project in Ghana

German ICEM affiliate IGBCE will hold its Congress 9-14 October in Hannover with 391 delegates taking on 150 resolutions under the banner “Strong Enough for New Paths.” The Congress will include some 1,100 guests, and one motion to be considered will be the challenges to trade union cooperation in the greater EU economy and globalisation. IGBCE President Hubertus Schmoldt called recent German elections a mandate against radical reforms to labour law and bargaining regulations, issues brought forth by both the CDU/CSU and neo-liberals. Schmoldt said in a newspaper interview that Germany needs new concepts for it’s energy market, as well as creation of better terms and conditions for employment in high-tech workplaces.

German Affiliate IGBCE to Hold Congress

You can direct all information and requests to the general e-mail address of the ICEM: <a href="mailto:info@icem.org">info@icem.org</a>. Please also use this address in case you have a specific request, but are unsure about whom to contact directly. The ICEM’s general phone number in Geneva is ++41-22-304-1840.
Please also take into account that, in case you try to contact a staff member directly, he or she may not be in the office for a period of time while traveling. In those cases, the staff member concerned may not answer your e-mail as quickly as you would have hoped. 
All ICEM staff can be reached by e-mail as follows: 
<a href="mailto:firstname.lastname@icem.org">firstname.lastname@icem.org</a> 

 Management team
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Manfred Warda PREFERRED.jpg" width="210" height="208"/> 
 
Manfred Warda 
ICEM General Secretary  

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Jimcatterson.jpg" width="100" height="136"/>  
Jim Catterson  
ICEM Director of Organisation 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Kemal Ozkan NEW.jpg" width="110" height="134"/>
Kemal Ozkan 
ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/marie.france.JPG" width="108" height="156"/>
Marie France Sarfati 
ICEM Finance & Human Resources Officer 
 
<a name="I"></a><a name="industry"></a> 
Industry Officers<a name="Industry"></a>
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1105.Dick Blin - Staff foto list.JPG" width="100" height="152"/>
Dick Blin 
ICEM Pulp and Paper Section Officer  
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Kemal Ozkan NEW.jpg" width="110" height="134"/>
Kemal Ozkan  
ICEM Chemical / Pharmaceuticals / Rubber Section Officer 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Phee.JPG" width="100" height="150"/>
Phee Jung-sun 
ICEM Materials 
(Cement, Glass, Ceramics) Section Officer 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Jimcatterson.jpg" width="100" height="136"/>
Jim Catterson 
ICEM Energy Section Officer 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Glen Mpufane.jpg" width="152" height="140"/>
Glen Mpufane 
ICEM Mining & DGOJP Section Officer 
Functional Officers<a name="Functional"></a>
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/carolbruce.jpg.JPG" width="100" height="150"/>
Carol Bruce 
ICEM Gender Issues Officer 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1105.Dick Blin - Staff foto list.JPG" width="100" height="152"/>
Dick Blin 
ICEM Information and Publications, Campaigns Officer 
 <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Fons.JPG" width="100" height="134"/>
Kurt (Fons) Vannieuwenhuyse 
ICEM Projects Officer 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Brian.Kohler.b.JPG" width="104" height="156"/>
Brian Kohler 
ICEM Health, Safety & Sustainability Officer 
 
Regional Contact Persons <a name="Regional"></a>
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Anatoly.JPG" width="100" height="134"/>
Anatoly Surin 
Regional contact person for Central and Eastern Europe
Carol Bruce 
Regional contact person for Latin America/Caribbean 
Brian Kohler 
Regional contact person for North America 
Kurt (Fons) Vannieuwenhuyse 
Regional contact person for Western, Nordic and Central Europe  
Jim Catterson  
Regional contact person for North Africa & Middle East
Phee Jung-sun 
Regional contact person for Asia-Pacific <a href="mailto:phee.jungsun@icem.org"> 
 
</a>Support Staff<a name="Support"></a>
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Fanja100.jpg" width="100" height="115"/>
 Fanja Rasolomanana 
Personal Assistant to the General Secretary 
and Conference Coordinator 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/steeve.latte.b.JPG" width="111" height="166"/>
Steeve Latté 
Finance & Administration Assistant
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/tom.g.JPG" width="101" height="138"/>
Tom Grinter 
Communications & Campaigns Assistant
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0809MariaPaula100.jpg" width="100" height="120"/>
Maria Paula Davidson 
Travel & General Administrative Assistant 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Maita Wyss.2.jpg" width="97" height="132"/> 
Maita Wyss 
Receptionist & Database Assistant

ICEM Staff

<img height="55" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="138"/>
Some 1,300 members of United Steel Workers (USW) in Canada are back to work at Teck Cominco Ltd. following ratification 5 October of a new three-year collective agreement. Steelworkers had been on strike at the company’s zinc and lead operations in Trail, British Colombia, since 19 July. 
The strike had been called in order to re-gain wage and pension ground given the company in the 1990s during economic hard times. The new contract has wage increases totaling 10% over the three years, pension gains of 12%, and a C$3,500 cash payment to each worker.

Strike Settled in Canada with Wage, Benefit Gains

<img height="83" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/canadacep.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
History was made in the North American offshore oil industry 30 September. Some 120 members of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada won the continent’s first offshore oil collective agreement at Terra Nova, a platform 350 kilometers off Newfoundland that is a consortium of seven oil companies led by Petro Canada. 
The agreement came through first contract arbitration in accord with labour law in Newfoundland, which prohibits strikes or lockouts in an initial contract period. “It has taken years of patience and solidarity to get to this point,” said CEP President Brian Payne. “We had hoped for a freely bargained collective agreement but this legally imposed arbitrated settlement is an important stepping stone in improving working conditions.” 
The platform workers chose CEP representation by an 84% vote in April 2003, 19 months after workers at another North Atlantic installation called Hibernia voted for CEP, becoming the first NA offshore group to unionise. 
A contract for the 430 workers there is currently before the same arbitration process. Besides Petro Canada, companies with a stake in Terra Nova include ExxonMobil, Norske Hydro, Husky Oil, Murphy Oil, Mosbacher Operating, and Chevron.

First Collective Agreement in NA Offshore Sector

I CEM, on behalf of three Australian affiliates, has demanded to Bridgestone officials in Japan that it intervene to halt the planned lockout by Australian managers of 580 union workers at a tyre manufacturing plant in Salisbury, Adelaide. Australian management announced a two-week lockout from 12 August to 27 August over a failure it says in enterprise bargaining. 
 
"This threat by your company of such action, and to drastic cuts in workers' salaries and conditions we understand has been the background under which our affiliates have been trying to negotiate to resolve this matter," stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in a letter dated 11 August to Shigeo Watanabe, Bridgestone's President and CEO. 
 
"This (lockout) is clearly unacceptable behavior on the part of the Company. I request these threats be withdrawn, and that you intervene to create a constructive atmosphere for the resumption of negotiations with a view to resolving the matter." 
 
The three ICEM affiliates - the Australian Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers' Union (LHMU), the Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU) - have bargained in good faith under Australian Industrial Relations Commission directives. 
 
But Bridgestone has insisted on profound changes to the labour agreement, which expired 20 June. The company is seeking no guarantees of future wage increases unless workers meet productivity targets, an increase in work hours and drastic reductions to long-practiced entitlements. Workers have twice voted down the cuts, the latest 1 August by 492-34. 
 
"Bridgestone's proposed solution for plant survival is to reduce employee entitlements and conditions, reduce their earnings with no guaranteed cost-of-living adjustments for three years," said Boyd MacRae, shop steward and Vice President of LHMU. 
 
"Bridgestone executives are pocketing over $2 million a year in salaries and bonuses while they expect tyre workers to accept a reduction in real wages and conditions," added Chris Field, assistant secretary of LHMU.

Bridgestone Told to Halt Australian Lockout

How can everyone be guaranteed access to electricity in a country whose population will reach one billion by 2001? Where will the finance come from for the 8,000 MW of new capacity needed each year to meet a 10 percent increase in demand? 
 
India has no alternative but to allow private investment in power generation. That was the conclusion today from 250 delegates at a trade union international energy conference in Delhi, India. 
 
But private investment does not mean privatising the existing utilities. Indian state-owned thermal power generation giant NTPC wins praise even from the World Bank for its efficiency. Transmission company Powergrid and the State Electricity Boards have managed to achieve an electrification rate of 85 per cent, which is a respectable figure for a huge, predominantly agricultural country. It is doubtful whether any private investor would care to cater for the specific social tasks related to distribution to remote areas, farmers and the poor. 
 
Organising the Delhi conference was the Indian National Electricity Workers' Federation (INEF), which is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Private and foreign investors should not be favoured by guaranteeing them excessive profits and tax holidays as the Indian government is doing now, the unions insisted. 
 
For instance, the government has guaranteed energy multinational ENRON a 16 per cent rate of return on the gas-fired power plant that the company is now building in India. That means 700 million US dollars per year of guaranteed profit for ENRON, which has also been granted a five-year tax exemption by the Indian government. And in case of oversupply, ENRON will have the right to keep generating at full capacity, while Indian generators will have to shed load. 
 
The Indian electricity sector has only recently opened up to foreign investment, but the government has already approved deals worth billions of dollars. 
 
Proper regulation must provide a level playing field for private and public generators, the union conference said. 
 
The dire economic straits of the State Electricity Boards require prompt action. Their annual losses amount to billions of dollars, mostly due to their subsidising electricity prices to farmers. While acknowledging that a poor rural population could not afford charges high enough to cover electricity production costs, the electricity workers feel that power pricing should be supported by direct state subsidies, not by ruining the finances of distribution companies. 
 
Management representatives promised to sit down with the unions and study how to develop work organisation for the future. True partnership and extensive training will be needed in the new competitive environment. 
 
In conjunction with the conference, the ICEM held a sub-regional workshop for South Asian electric power unions. As the governments of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are discussing a cross-border power link, the unions decided to intensify their co-operation. The ICEM will support them as part of its energy workers' networking project for the Asia-Pacific region.

Indian Electricity Workers Back Private Investment, But ...

Management at Austria's disaster-struck Lassing mine sent ten workers to their deaths for purely economic reasons. 
 
That is the main accusation in a highly critical report released today by the Austrian metal, mining and energy union GMBE. 
 
Lassing is run by Talc de Luzenac, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, the world's biggest mining corporation. In Austria's worst mining accident since the war, ten miners died at Lassing this July when the roof of the talc mine collapsed. They were sent in after another miner, Georg Hainzl, had already been buried by the collapse. Ten days later, Hainzl was brought out alive. 
 
"Manifestly, neither the management nor the mines authority nor the other emergency services had any concept," the report concludes. "That is the only possible explanation for the chaotic and amateurish organisation during this emergency. The failure to involve those present who had practical knowledge (the miners), including the works council chairman (also a miner), who certainly should have been involved in the response to the disaster, demonstrates an incomprehensible hierarchical arrogance on the part of the responsible specialists both within the firm and in the authorities." 
 
The report was prepared for GMBE President Rudolf Nürnberger by Richard Hollerer, the union's secretary in the Lassing area. It includes a chronological account of the disaster from 17 July onwards. Part of the chronology: 
 
[quote] 
 
Although the road through Lassing had been closed from 13.30 because of subsidence, and the stream there had already disappeared underground at around 11.30, miners who had been ordered back to the site were kept working all afternoon inside the mine in order to secure it, and it was there that, at approximately 22.00, they were tragically buried. 
At around 13.00, the responsible mines inspector had arrived at the site and had toured the mine with company managers (and commercial staff). 
Further subsidence in the area of the mine (above ground) was, incomprehensibly enough, also not taken seriously. As early as 11.50, local residents had reported that the house of the Maier family was subsiding. The company management produced photographic documentation of the evolution of this collapse. 
Private callers who had, over the previous few days, drawn attention to the danger posed by blasting were clearly not taken seriously either. 
It should also be noted at this point that it had been repeatedly stated over the past few years that there was no intention of mining too far under the stream, as the ground conditions were not stable there. It was all, the statements said, too heavily overlaid with marshland. 
The gentlemen responsible realised the seriousness of the situation much too late - namely, at about 22.00, when massive quantities of mud and water trapped the other 10 miners who were inside the mine. 
The chaos that reigned in the following hours, while organising the rescue work, shows quite clearly that the capacities both of the mine management and of the mines inspectorate were hopelessly overstretched. Nobody was capable of coordinating the deployment of the rescue squads. 
The chairman of the works council, who is also a miner, the other miners and the recently retired head supervisor were not brought into the crisis team or the deployment leadership team. Repeated appeals did nothing to change this attitude. 
The deployment team held hours of discussions and meetings without reaching any concrete conclusions - this in the presence of journalists. 
Offers of assistance from volunteers and teams of experts in Germany, Hungary, Italy, the USA and Austria were stubbornly refused. 
The unavoidable impression is that the intention, even in this catastrophic situation, was to find a company-internal solution. 
[end of quote] 
 
The chronology goes on to criticise the unpreparedness of the emergency services, the state authorities and the mines inspectorate. It also says that the drilling of a rescue shaft was decided much too late, and was further delayed by the use of old, inadequate equipment. It was through the rescue shaft that Georg Hainzl was finally brought out alive, after ten days underground. 
 
"Incidentally," the report says,"it was clear from the start that this was the only possible way of rescuing him." The implications of this are made clear a little later in the report: "The claims now being constantly made, that it was necessary to send in the miners in order to rescue Brother Hainzl, are demonstrably incorrect (by means of available, verifiable safety plans). Rather, it is clear that they were reinforcing the mine so that the further extraction of talc would not be made impossible by the further penetration of mud!" 
 
The report also notes that no register of mine rescue experts and equipment was available, and describes this as an "unforgivable error both by the company and by the mining authority." 
 
And it says that previous safety incidents at the mine were hushed up. "Attempts were made, through all kinds of 'tricks', to push down the mine's accident rate (provable). Injuries suffered by miners while underground were hushed up by giving them home leave or assigning them to jobs above ground." 
 
[All quotes above are translations from the German] 
 
Meanwhile, an investigation by the mines inspectorate supports allegations that tunnels had been dug beyond the area covered by Talc de Luzenac's permits at Lassing. The firm continues to deny this. But mines minister Hannes Farnleitner, himself under growing criticism for his conduct during the disaster, told parliament that he had passed files to the public prosecutor for investigation. 
 
 
 
RIO TINTO RESPONDS 
 
Asked by ICEM UPDATE today to comment on the allegations, Rio Tinto’s global headquarters in London was unaware of them in detail. After the ICEM faxed through the Austrian documents, Rio Tinto provided the following response, which we reproduce in full: 
 
[quote] 
 
The circumstances surrounding the tragic disaster at Lassing are the subject of a detailed independent investigation being conducted by the Austrian authorities. Full cooperation is being extended by Naintsch Mineralwerke, a subsidiary of Talc de Luzenac, itself part of Rio Tinto. In these circumstances, the only comment Rio Tinto would make to the ICEM statement is to assert that: 
 
1) The only concerns of the authorities and of Naintsch Mineralwerke and Rio Tinto since the earliest inundation at noon on July 17 have been for the rescue of Georg Hainzl, the trapped miner, the safety of his colleagues, including those who tragically died, and the subsequent welfare of their families. 
 
2) The Austrian authorities lay down extensaive procedures relating to mine safety which ensure significant involvement of employees and the State Authorities in the safety of miners. Mine safety is of foremost concern to the company, its employees and the Authorities. The Lassing mine had over recent years an exemplary safety record due to their concerted effort and we are not aware of any safety incidents which have not been properly reported. 
 
In our understanding, this has never been a union-company point of difference and we would wish to pay tribute to the Austrian employees for their efforts in such difficult circumstances. 
 
[end of quote] 
 
 
 
ICEM UPDATE Editor’s note: The statements to which Rio Tinto is responding here are, of course, by the Austrian miners’ union and the Austrian mining inspectorate, rather than by the ICEM. 
 
 
 
LUST FOR PROFIT? 
 
Rudolf Nürnberger, the GMBE's President, is also a member of the Austrian parliament. The responsibility for the Lassing disaster must rest "at the top," Nürnberger told parliament yesterday - notably with Rio Tinto, the minister and the head of the mining authority. On the reports that the accident was caused by illegal mining, he said that, if proved, this would mean that the miners' deaths were in fact caused by "the lust for profit". 
 
Reminding Austria's lawmakers of "the pressure that can be exerted on workers by the threat that their jobs will be lost," Nürnberger insisted that "for those who have a close knowledge of the ultimate owner, namely Rio Tinto, all this will not seem unusual." He went on to cite Rio Tinto - Tainted Titan, the "stakeholders' report" produced jointly by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and a number of human rights and environmental organisations. 
 
"The ICEM," Nürnberger told parliament, "is the worldwide federation in which chemical unions, miners unions ... and therefore also the union that I represent are united. On the occasion of Rio Tinto's last annual general meeting, we produced a very comprehensive report and, Minister, if you don't want to bother going on to the Internet, I am very willing to place this Rio Tinto report at your disposal." 
 
Others can access it on this site - see below. 
 
As Nürnberger told the minister, Rio Tinto - Tainted Titan gives a detailed worldwide critique of Rio Tinto's "approach to human rights, particularly the rights of workers and local populations, rights concerning natural resources ... environmental protection regulations, and its very lax approach to occupational health and safety." 
 
Noting that "last year, Rio Tinto earned 1.2 billion US dollars clear profit on a turnover of 9.2 billion", Nürnberger told a cheering parliament that, once responsibilities had been clarified, Rio Tinto should be made to pay back "every schilling and groschen" of the costs caused by the Lassing disaster. 
 
"We fully support our Austrian colleagues' demands," commented ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe. "It is becoming clear that there was no proper forward planning for dealing with an accident at Lassing. It also appears that safety precautions were inadequate and that safety incidents were hushed up. All this puts Rio Tinto and the authorities in clear breach of their obligations under international mining safety standards, as set out in Convention 176 of the UN’s International Labour Organisation. 
 
"If further tragedies of this kind are to be avoided," Thorpe emphasised, "it is essential that representative trade unions be fully involved in safety planning and implementation at all Rio Tinto mines worldwide. We call upon the company to abandon its hostility to trade unions and to work with us to ensure that the world's biggest mining company becomes the world's safest."

Austrian Mine Disaster: Rio Tinto Blamed

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