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The coal rush in the eastern United States has brought six more mining deaths in recent days, and again it is a fledgling mining company responsible for five of those deaths. On 20 May, five miners at the non-union Kentucky Darby Mine No. 1 in Harlan County, state of Kentucky, died after a methane explosion inside a shaft. Two of the miners died instantly due to the blast, while three others died underground later due to carbon monoxide poisoning. 
 
On 24 May, a miner underground at International Coal Group’s (ICG) Sycamore II Mine near Jarvisville, state of West Virginia, died when he was struck in the head by a heavy wooden object. ICG is the non-union coal operator of the Sago Mine in West Virginia in which 12 miners were killed on 2 January 2006 following an explosion. 
A miner who escaped the Harlan County blast questioned the reliability of self-contained oxygen packs provided to miners only a month before the 20 May explosion. Both ICG and Kentucky Darby LLC, which has operated the mine in eastern Kentucky since 2001, utilized the same emergency devices. Thirty-three mining deaths have happened in the US so far in 2006, with 19 of those deaths in West Virginia and ten in Kentucky. 
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On the day of the latest ICG death, the US Senate passed legislation mandating improved oxygen supplies, electronic tracking systems, fire-resistant lifelines, and local rescue teams, all areas in which start-up coal operators have been lax. The bill also requires up-to-date emergency preparedness and response plans that are continually monitored by the Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA). A companion bill is now in the US House. 
The legislation is endorsed by ICEM affiliate United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), as well as by a coalmining employers’ group. But the association tempered its support over of a 15-minutes notification requirement to MSHA in the event of serious accidents. MSHA has also issued new rules on mine safety since the Sago Mine explosion. 
 
The UMWA has called for miner tracking devises, wireless communication and emergency rescue chambers already in use in Germany, Poland and Australia. UMWA Director of Occupational Health and Safety, Dennis O’Dell, in a published report, said, “The emergency rules do some good things but don’t go far enough. We in the United States are really behind on the kind of technology that protects miners’ safety and is already saving lives in other countries.”

Mining Deaths Keep Occurring in US Coal Industry

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Saturday 17 November 2007  
10.00 – 17.00 Women’s Conference 
 
Sunday 18 November 2007 
09.30 – 17.00 Women’s Conference 
 
Monday 19 November 2007  
09.00 – 17.30 Presidium 
19:00 Dinner for ICEM Presidium Members and accompanying persons 
 
Tuesday 20 November 2007   
09:00 - 17:00 Executive Committee Meeting 
19.00 Dinner for ICEM Executive Committee Members and accompanying persons 
 
Wednesday 21 November 2007   
09:00 - 17:00 Contract and Agency Labour Conference 
17.00+ Meeting of Congress Credentials Committee 
 
Thursday 22 November 2007   
10.00 Opening of Congress 
17.00 Congress Sessions close 
17:00+ WFIW Integration 
19.30 Dinner 
 
Friday 23 November 2007   
09:00 Congress Sessions continue 
17:30 Congress Sessions close 
19.00 Dinner 
 
Saturday 24 November 2007   
09:00 Final Congress Sessions 
14:00 Congress Closure 
15:00-17:00 New ICEM Presidium meets 
<a href="/en/?id=184&doc=2430&la=EN" type="internal">Click here for the detailed draft 4th World Congress Agenda 
</a> 
Departure of Delegations

Provisional Programme for the Fourth ICEM World Congress

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Members of Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada at Stora Enso’s Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, paper mill will meet this week and review a contract proposal presented by the company over the weekend. The Finnish-Swedish paper company presented CEP Local 972 with a proposal on 10 June, after four days of intense talks. 
 
On 30 May, Stora Enso issued an ultimatum to the 600 paperworkers to either finalise a new collective agreement by 24 June or face a closure of the coated papers and newsprint mill. The lockout started on 26 January 2006 over Stora’s insistence on gaining more flexibility regarding outsourcing mill work than allowed under the pattern agreement for the paper industry in eastern Canada. 
 
In negotiations that resumed in early May, the company put forward a restructuring plan that included proposed wage and other cuts totalling between 14 and 18%. This recovery plan included wage cuts of 10%.
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Details of the 10 June proposal were not released until CEP Local 972 members have had an opportunity to review it. The 650 workers have been locked out now for 21 weeks.

New Stora Enso Offer Will Be Reviewed by CEP Branch at Canadian Paper Mill

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A study commissioned by ICEM Finnish affiliate Paperiliitto and the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland (SASK) says a greenfield pulp mill in Brazil operated jointly by Stora Enso and Aracruz Celulose is too dependent on contract workers. 
The study, released 7 June by Observatorio Social, the research institute connected with the Brazilian trade union centre CUT, reports that the joint venture has so many contractors that it cannot adequately monitor them.
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The mill, called Veracel Florestal Ltda. and located in Eunápolis, state of Bahia, utilises contractors in the harvesting of eucalyptus for the mill, which causes immense environmental damage. Also, the mill relies on questionable contractors rather than permanent workers for most tasks at the mill, except for the actual production of pulp. 
 
The result is that overall salaries are driven down and labour contract terms circumvented. The study also reports that health and safety is compromised, and there is too much exposure to chemicals by both workers and those living in Eunápolis. The pulp mill went on line in 2005 and can produce 900,000 metric tonnes per year of eucalyptus pulp.

Stora Enso, Brazilian Aracruz Celulose Too Dependent on Contractors, Study Says

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In the US, ICEM affiliate United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) is combating unprecedented mining accidents that have occurred this year in unorganised coal mines, with both court room action and legislative efforts. The UMWA, on 8 June, filed a federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., against the Bush administration’s Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA). 
 
The lawsuit seeks to compel MSHA to begin conducting random checks of oxygen devices used in underground mine emergencies. The lawsuit also seeks to force the mine safety bureau to train miners on the use of such devices. 
 
A day before the lawsuit was filed, the US House of Representatives voted 381 to 37 to approve stricter mine safety regulations. The proposed law would mandate mine operators to provide two hours of oxygen in underground mines, and would give them three years to install communication and tracking equipment in underground mines.
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It also requires companies to report any life-threatening accident within 15 minutes of occurrence and requires all mines to have on-site rescue teams, something only UMWA-staffed mines have at present. In May, the US Senate approved the measure, strongly backed by the UMWA, and it now must go to President George Bush for his signature before becoming law. 
 
To date in 2006, 33 deaths have occurred in US coal mines, all of them in non-union worksites. The majority of those deaths have been caused from carbon monoxide poisoning following explosions, a fact compounded by faulty breathing devices and insufficient oxygen supplies in underground mines.

Mine Workers in US Take Steps to Improve Safety

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On 1 June, 17 coal miners died after a methane gas explosion caused a collapse of shafts at a mine owned by the privately-held Sentas Madencilik mining company in Dursunbey, Turkey. Nine other miners were seriously injured at the unorganised mine in Belıkesir province. 
 
The tragedy, just one in a series of underground mining accidents occurring across the world on almost a daily basis, deserves attention due to the response from business interests inside Turkey, as well as from the minister of Energy and Natural Resources. That response was to explain away the Dursunbey deaths as “such things happen in the mining industry.”
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But in Turkey, as in many other countries, the expansion of coal and minerals mining into remote areas by more and more operators brings with it higher safety risks, particularly when those mines are operated without the monitoring and compliance that trade unions offer. 
 
Following the Dursunbey tragedy and the cold-hearted remarks by both the government’s minister and an employers’ organisation, ICEM affiliate Maden-Īş Sendikasi said that although mine safety legislation is in place in Turkey, weak enforcement is to blame for many mine disasters. “If there were unions at this workplace, safety regulations would be followed,” said the union. 
 
“Where there are unions” in mines, “the number of accidents declines noticeably,” added a Maden-Īş spokesperson. The ICEM addressed the 1 June Turkish mining catastrophe in a letter to the union by issuing unequivocal support for Maden-Īş’s health and safety efforts across the mining industry in Turkey.

Turkish Mine Deaths Illuminated by Callous Official Comments

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The Thai subsidiary of French-based public relations giant Publicis Groupe has withdrawn its ill-brought libel lawsuit against Junya Lek Timprasert and the Thai Labour Campaign (TLC). Lawyers for the company dropped the suit, which was before Bangkok’s Southern Criminal Court, on 20 June. 
 
The TLC, with Lek as coordinator, has received strong support from the ICEM over the years in its efforts to reveal human rights and labour rights violations in Thailand. Their “crime” in the Publicis Thailand case was to republish an article from CSR Asia Weekly on the TLC website regarding an unfair dismissal case brought forward by five women workers of the public relations subsidiary.
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The company, in 2005, had charged TLC and Lek with “defamation by propagation” in the Thai court. Lek faced jail time, while TLC might have had to pay monetary damages and seen limitations to its valuable work, had global pressure not been brought against the French public relations company to drop the lawsuit. 
 
“It is frustrating that we, who are directly in contact with workers that produce for the world and witness many rights violations, cannot bring situations to the attention of the world without the risk of being sued,” said Lek. “Furthermore, workers who report to us, of course, face all kinds of pressures and risk being dismissed.”

Lawsuit Dropped by French PR Firm Against Thai Labour Campaign

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Colombian mining union Sintramienergética ended two coal strikes recently that had begun to impact markets. On 22 June, the union agreed to a two-year agreement with US-based Drummond that ended a month-long strike at the La Loma mines in Cesar state. 
 
Sintramienergética, in addition to winning social benefits, achieved an 8% wage increase for this year, and will receive 1.5% above the inflation rate in 2007. Strike-ending mediations took place under the guidance of the Ministry of Social Protection.
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Some 2,000 miners struck Drummond on 22 May, and the walkout directly affected another 1,000 contract workers, as well as some 5,000 employees of transport, terminal and other service companies connected to Drummond’s coal export business. The company exports some 22 million tonnes of coal annually from its Puerto Drummond, Colombia, deep-water port. 
 
Non-ICEM-affiliated Sintramienergética also came to terms on 6 June with Swiss-based Glencore International at the Carbones de la Jagua mining operation. About 1,000 miners there began a strike on 17 May. 
 
The settlement gives workers a 7.5% salary increase, and the new agreement also grants social benefits to both Glencore workers and contract employees. Glencore mines some 12 million tonnes annually from this Jagua de Ibirico location in Cesar state.

 Colombian Mine Union Ends Coal Strikes at Drummond, Glencore

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Soaring gas and electricity prices, coupled with Britain’s pension funding crisis, has caused the closure of a recycled paper mill in Fife, Scotland. Smith, Anderson & Co. Ltd. announced closure of its Fettykill Mills operation, resulting in the loss of 106 jobs. 
 
ICEM affiliate Amicus has been working with the owners of the 146-year-old mill to get the government to address high energy prices, rates which have risen 50% since last year when a restructuring plan was implemented in efforts to save the mill.
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 “Once again, high energy prices and the pension crisis in the UK have contributed towards the decision to close another mill,” stated Amicus Assistant General Secretary Tony Burke. “This is a devastating blow to the paper industry in the UK and manufacturing in Scotland,” said Burke, adding the union’s priority now is to work with staff in order that they find other jobs. 
 
Smith, Anderson & Co. will continue to run paper converting operations for the manufacture of paper bags from two Scottish plants, employing 245 staff, but the company’s recycling collection company, Securecycle, will likely be sold. 
In Scotland over the past eight years, 11 paper mills have been closed, leaving only six in operation. In the past two years alone, 800 Scottish paperworkers have faced redundancies.

Energy Prices, UK’s Pension Crisis Leads to Closure of Scottish Paper Mill

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French materials producer Imerys has reneged on a commitment made two years ago to British workers. The promise, made in 2004 when the company moved some jobs from Southwest England to Brazil, guaranteed that 800 other jobs would remain. 
 
However, in early July, Imerys dropped a proposed restructuring plan on all former English China Clay mining and manufacturing operations, which Imerys bought in 1999, near Cornwall and Devon, telling the communities that all 800 jobs would be gone and production will move to Brazil by 2008. With Imerys being the region’s largest private employer, such a scenario would be fatal to the economic lifeblood of the Southwest. The ICEM will again join with UK’s Transport & General Workers’ Union (TGWU), and two other UK trade unions representing Imerys workers, to resist the company’s destructive restructuring plan. 
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Early in 2005, Cornwall and Devon workers, together with their unions, fiercely resisted Imerys insistence on closing the final pension scheme and downgrading benefit levels for existing workers and retirees. That fight was waged to retain the spending power that thousands of workers and retirees had rightfully earned due to years on the job. Now the fight is survival. 
 
Since the proposed plan was uncovered just a week ago, TGWU has already organised a general stewards’ meeting and demanded from Imerys an immediate and preliminary meeting. In addition, an MP from the area, Matthew Taylor, representing Truro and St Austell, has scheduled an emergency debate on the economic consequences to the region in Parliament tomorrow, 11 July.

French-based Imerys Drops Bombshell on Southwest England

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