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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we call on ICEM affiliates to get involved in activities on World AIDS Day (1 December) and report, among others, on the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific and the road towards an ILO instrument on HIV/AIDS and the world of work. 
 
The ICEM Calls on its Affiliates to Contribute to this e-bulletin 
 
ICEM affiliates are already engaged in a wide range of HIV/AIDS activities. To spread the information on new agreements, awareness, and prevention campaigns, and educational activities, 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. 
 
Editor: Hans J Schwass, ICEM HIV/AIDS Consultant 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
World AIDS Day 2009 – Call on ICEM Affiliates to be Active 
 
As every year, World AIDS Day will be held on 1 December. ICEM affiliates must plan their participation in national activities now. 
 
The theme of this year’s World AIDS Day is Universal Access and Human Rights. Campaign material is designed with the “I AM” theme, adopting the key slogans: I am accepted; I am safe; I am getting treatment; I am well and I am living my rights. 
 
Supporting material – four posters and two postcards – has been made available by the World AIDS Campaign. These can be downloaded from their website <a href="http://www.worldaidscampaign.org">www.worldaidscampaign.org</a>. Hardcopies, which are available in English, Spanish, French, and Russian, can also be ordered from the ICEM. Please send an email to <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org</a> indicating language and number of copies (deadline 23 October). 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
HIV/AIDS and the World of Work – ILO Consultations 
 
The ILO has recently transmitted to Governments the text of the proposed new Recommendation on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work. The text is contained in the Third Report and it has been prepared by the ILO on the basis of the first discussion at the 98th Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) in June 2009. The Governments are now requested to inform the ILO about amendments to suggest, or comments to make, and to inform the ILO whether they consider that the proposed text provides a satisfactory basis for the second discussion by the Conference at its 99th Session in June 2010. The deadline for reply is 19 November 2009. 
 
A Government is supposed to contact and consult national trade union centres before finalizing its reply (pursuant to Article 39, paragraph 6, of the Standing Orders). ICEM affiliates are urged to get involved in the inputs from their national centres. The ILO document, the so-called Brown Report (because of the colour of its cover), Report V (1), ILC 99th Session 2010 can be found <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_112365.pdf ">here</a>. 
 
(Source: ITUC Circular no. 55 of 25 September) 

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International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) 
 
The 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific took place in Bali, Indonesia, in August under the theme, “Empowering People, Strengthening Networks.” It brought together more than 3,000 participants, including representatives from the Global Unions and local unionists. 
 
In the workplace, stigma and discrimination are the major barriers for workers infected with HIV. They are often blamed for their condition, discriminated in employment and fired because they are living with HIV/AIDS. During a satellite session on workplace intervention, Dr Syed Asif Altar, Global HIV/AIDS Coordinator of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), spoke on the role of trade unions in reducing risky behaviour among transport workers – transportation having been identified, together with mining and the fisheries industry, as the most vulnerable sectors in Asia. In the symposium on the impact of the financial crisis on labour migration and HIV, Christopher Ng, APRO Regional Secretary of UNI Global Union called on governments to utilize various types of overseas workers’ funds to assist migrant workers and their families including access to HIV services in the country of origin and country of destination. 
 
A UNAIDS report released at the Congress, claimed that an estimated 50 million women in Asia are at risk of contracting HIV from male partners who engage in risky sexual behaviour. The report, “HIV Transmission in Intimate Partner Relationships in Asia,” states that of the 1.7 million women now living with HIV in Asia, more than 90% have acquired the virus from their husbands or long-term boyfriends. 
 
(Source: Information from participants, the ILO website and Jakarta Post of 15 August) 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Global Fund Meeting on Public/Private Partnerships and Co-Investments 
 
In an effort to re-establish a dialogue between the Global Fund and organisations involved in public/private partnership co-investment projects, the Global Fund organised an inter-agency meeting on 14 September. 
 
Such projects benefit from input of the private sector such as clinics, medical staff and management expertise. The private sector in turn can expand HIV/AIDS interventions and services with GF grants channelled through the public sector or as direct recipient of such grants. In remote areas, which is especially the case for mining, with an insufficient public health service, companies can close the gap by extending HIV/AIDS and other health services to the wider community in which they operate in. 
 
The ICEM welcomes this re-engagement. One of the objectives of the meeting was to discuss ways in which employer and employee organisations can access Global Fund grants. The fact that employee organisations are included is a step forward. The ICEM HIV/AIDS Consultant, who was the only unionist participating in the meeting, insisted that in future considerations of co-investment projects, unions be given their rightful role. He stressed that for the ICEM, as a Global Union Federation, the private sector is business and organised labour comprises trade unions. HIV/AIDS interventions that are only management driven are not likely to succeed. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Treatment Time Bomb 
 
The goal of achieving universal access to treatment by 2010 has preoccupied the global AIDS community in recent years, but a new report warns that not preparing for the changing treatment needs of people living with HIV will doom the sustainability of treatment programmes in developing countries. Over the next decade an increasing number of patients on inexpensive first-line antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in low-income countries will need second-line ARVs, which currently cost at least seven times more. 
 
"The Treatment Timebomb," released this month by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on AIDS, a group of UK MPs, argues that action is needed now to bring down the price of second-line and less toxic first-line ARVs if a crisis later is to be averted. 
 
Low-income countries can afford to buy older-generation ARVs largely because multiple manufacturers are producing generic versions of them at a fraction of the original cost, but most of the newer drugs are being produced under patents that prevent generic manufacture. The AAPG report points out that safeguards in the World Trade Organization's Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) allow countries to override patents - for public health purposes - by issuing "compulsory licenses" that enable the generic manufacture of drugs still under patent. However, few developing countries have exercised this right. 
 
The Clinton Foundation announced that it had reached agreements with two major drug companies to bring the cost of second-line ARVs to under US$500 per person annually. As an example, at present, second-line ARVs in Kenya cost around US$1,000 per person per year, while first-line ARVs cost under US$100. 
 
(Source: IRIN PlusNews, 28 July and 7 August) 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Canadian Labour Congress Signs Agreement with ITUC Africa 
 
The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) signed an HIV and AIDS advocacy agreement with the African regional organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC Africa). The agreement, for an initial period of two years, creates a partnership approach to addressing HIV and AIDS and promotes universal access to prevention, treatment, and care of infected workers and their families. 
 
The accord is not limited to training and education but includes joint political lobbying on HIV/AIDS at international bodies, such as the G8, which will be hosted by Canada in the summer of 2010. It covers strengthening of workplace initiatives and reaching agreements with employers. As these are within the domain of industrial and sectoral unions affiliated to national centres, the partnership contains a provision for other sectors to join the exercise. 
 
(Source: CLC Press Statement, 1 September) 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Global Fund Five-Year Evaluation Completed 
 
Launched in November 2006, when the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria was approaching its fifth anniversary, the Five-Year Evaluation has been completed after more than two years of work. It would go beyond the scope of this e-bulletin to go into the findings of all three study areas of the evaluation, of which the third one – Health Impact – alone cost US$11.7 million. 
 
Not surprisingly, the main finding is that the rapid increase in funding from all partners for the three diseases has resulted in a major expansion in access to services in these countries and has improved coverage of interventions, which will likely impact disease burden. 
 
More specifically, on HIV/AIDS the evaluation found a dramatic increase in the coverage of antiretroviral treatment. That was to be expected as the major thrust of Global Fund grants in the first years was treatment. Other findings include major gaps in basic requirements, such as trained personnel, guidelines, medicines, and equipment, which negatively impact on the quality of services. The evaluation also found that there was little evidence of behaviour change among the most at risk. 
 
It has to be noted that the impact study extended to only 18 countries of the 136 which had received grants at the time of the evaluation. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 106, 19 August. GFO is a free service of Aidspan (<a href="mailto:www.aidspan.org">mailto:www.aidspan.org</a>). To receive GFO, send an email to receive-gfo-<a href="mailto:newsletter@aidspan.org">newsletter@aidspan.org</a>. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
This ICEM HIV-AIDS Newsletter – How to Subscribe 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an email to <a href="mailto:press@icem.org">press@icem.org</a>. Please put “subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin” in the subject line.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 49 October 2009

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Some 1,200 miners at Shougang Hierro Peru begin their second week of an indefinite strike today, with no end in sight, as the company continues to refuse to enter dialogue with the union. Shougang Hierro’s Marcona mine in Southern Peru is the country’s only iron ore mine, producing 7.5 million tonnes of iron ore last year, and is part of China’s state-owned Shougang Group. 
 
Management has failed to follow through on a collective agreement reached in July this year, which was supposed to raise daily wages by US$1.91 a day. The July agreement was reached through arbitration with Peru’s Labour Ministry, and followed a 10-day strike at the mine. 
 
Shougang Hierro is notorious for paying the lowest salaries in Peru’s entire mining sector. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0907.peru.miners.jpg" width="250" height="179"/>
Shougang Miners
The Labour Ministry resolution last summer called on the company to raise miners’ wages, or be faced with a large fine. Mine management preferred to pay the fine rather than hike miners’ wages. The ICEM calls on the government of Peru to take more definitive action against the Chinese mining concern. 
 
Peru’s national miners’ and metalworkers’ union, ICEM affiliate FNTMMSP, last week called on its members to carry out a nationwide sector strike 19-20 October in support of Shougang miners. 
 
The striking miners are further demanding improved health benefits, and better safety and hygiene. 
 
A union spokesman, Julian Julca, stated, “The strike is total. We are approximately 1,200 workers on strike.” In response to the action by 100% of Shougang Hierro miners, management made a request to the Labour Ministry to declare the strike illegal. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Peru.png" width="200" height="93"/>
A US$1 billion expansion of the mine is currently underway to increase annual output by 10 million tones. Despite the global recession, Shougang Hierro Peru reported profits last year of US$145 million, a 50% increase over the previous year, and a figure almost three times the yearly profit of 2004. 
 
The national mining strike scheduled for 19-20 October is aimed at demanding compliance with the Labour Ministry resolution to raise the wages of Shougang Hierro miners, and will also demand the signing of a mining retirement bill by the government. In addition, FNTMMSP is seeking passage and enactment of mining profits legislation in Congress, which will assist all miners financially. 
 
The federated union also demands release of union leaders who were incarcerated for their involvement in a strike action at Minera Casapalca, and demands respect for the collective negotiation processes for both direct and outsourced workers. 
 
Peru is one of the world’s top mining and metallurgical producers. The mining sector accounts for 60% of the country’s total exports. The Marcona mine, 220 miles south of Lima, was bought by the Chinese national steel company in 1993.

Strike by Peru’s Miners Against China’s Shougang Group Hardens

Tom Albanese 
Chief Executive 
Rio Tinto plc 
2 Eastbourne Terrace 
London 
W2 6LG 
United Kingdom 
 
Fax +44 20 7781 1800 
 
Geneva, 17 September 2009 
 
Dear Mr. Albanese, 
 
We have recently learned of the contract demands that Rio Tinto has made of 600 miners represented by Local 30 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), AFL-CIO, in Boron, California. 
 
We are deeply concerned that Rio Tinto is creating an unnecessary conflict at this mine. The company proposes to dramatically reduce worker rights provided under the current agreement; terminate the current pension plan; drastically increase costs for dental and medical benefits: eliminate leave for sick workers; take away bidding rights of older workers; and offer no wage increases over 8 years while cutting wages if productivity falls. Clearly, your management is also seeking to weaken the trade union. 
 
The demands made by your management are unjustified and draconian. Moreover, these demands contradict your own policies concerning sustainable development since you seek to punish the workers and their community which have been responsible for your success. 
 
We will be supporting the ILWU in whatever way we can. 
 
Sincerely,

Rio Tinto, Model Letter

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Today, the ICEM stepped up its support for the nearly 600 miners of US Borax, in their struggle to defend their trade union rights and working conditions, against an attack from the Rio Tinto subsidiary. 
 
US Borax, located in Boron, California, is one of the few global suppliers of borates, and has the reserves for nearly 40 years more of production. Workers at the mine are represented by ICEM affiliate International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 30. Workers, through their union, have put forth a list of demands. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector4.jpg" width="100" height="95" alt=""/>
On wages, they seek an increase that will redress their loss of earning power over the past five years in which they saw raises that fell below inflation levels. They also seek to eliminate a two-tier wage structure that was put in place five years ago. On pensions, they are defending a defined benefit plan that the company seeks to eliminate, one that was fully funded until the stock market decline. 
 
On sick leave and medical benefits, the company has systematically reduced levels and Local 30 demands a redress of this trend. 
 
The ICEM is urging trade unions and activists to let Rio Tinto know that these miners are not alone in their fight for economic and social justice in this contract period. Please write and fax a letter (using the model found <a href="/index.php?id=5&la=EN&doc=3428" type="internal">here</a>) to Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese, and be sure to send a copy to Willie Adams, Secretary-Treasurer of the ILWU at <a href="mailto:william.adams@ilwu.org">william.adams@ilwu.org</a>.

ICEM Calls for Support to US Miners in California, Attacked by Rio Tinto

Nashville, Tennessee, USA 
May 12-13, 2009
A g e n d a

 
Monday, May 11, 2009 
 
Arrival of participants 
 
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 
 
08:00 Registration 
 
09:30 Opening of the Conference: 
Stan Johnson, International Secretary-Treasurer/Chairman of the Rubber&Plastics Conference of USW 
 
10:00 General Report on ICEM Activities 
Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary 
 
10:30 Presentation: “Global Industry Trends and Challenges” 
Kemal Özkan, ICEM Chemical and Rubber Industries Officer <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Kemal%20presentation%201.pdf" type="internal">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
11:00 Coffee-break 
 
11:30 First panel discussion: “ Effects Of Global Crisis on the Industry and Trade Union Challenges” 
Peter Bakvis, ITUC/Global Unions <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/PETER%20BAKVIS%20PRESENTATION.pdf" type="internal">(click for presentation)</a> 
Fabio Lins, CNQ-CUT, Brasil 
Jacques Caltot, FCE-CFDT, France 
Alexander Sitnov, RCWU, Russia 
K.K. Siritharan, NUECMRP, Malaysia 
 
Discussions 
 
13:00 Lunch 
 
14:30 Presentation: “Collective Bargaining, Wage Developments and Employment Relationship” 
Kemal Özkan, ICEM Chemical and Rubber Industries Officer <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Kemal%20presentation%202.pdf" type="internal">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
15:00 Second panel discussion: "Rising Hardships and Distortion in Work Relationships" 
Pedro Wasiejko, SUTNA-CTA, Argentina 
Edwin Cisco, FAWUL, Liberia 
Kevin Johnson, USW, USA <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/rubber%20presentation%20johnson.pdf" type="internal">(click for presentation)</a> 
Holger Michel, IG BCE, Germany 
 
16:00 Coffee-break 
 
16:30 Discussions 
 
Summary of panels 
 
17:00 End of first day work 
 
19:00 Conference dinner 
 
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 
 
09:30 Presentation: “Global Trade Union Response Against Challenges” 
Kemal Özkan, ICEM Chemical and Rubber Industries Officer <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Kemal%20presentation%203.pdf" type="internal">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
10:00 Third panel discussion: “Global Agreements, Global/Regional Company & Sector Networks and Campaigns” 
Cyrille Poughon, FCE-CFDT, France <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/rubber%20poughton.pdf" type="internal">(click for presentation)</a> 
Jesus Delgado, FIA-UGT, Spain <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/rubber%20delgado.pdf" type="internal">(click for presentation)</a> 
Fabio Lins, CNQ-CUT, Brasil <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/rubber%20futinal.pdf" type="internal">(click for presentation)</a> 
Michael Mersmann, IG BCE, Germany 
Melinda Newhouse, USW, USA <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/rubber%20newouse.pdf" type="internal">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
11:00 Coffee-break 
 
11:30 Presentation: “Healthy and Safe Work and Environment; Sustainable Development” 
Brian Kohler, ICEM Health, Safety and Sustainibilty Officer <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Health%20&%20Safety%20Rubber%20Conf.pdf" type="internal">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
12:00 Fourth panel discussion: “How To Improve Health And Safety for Workers; What Kind of Industrial Policy for Greener Environment by Securing Jobs” 
Jim Frederick, USW, USA <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/rubber%20usw.pdf" type="internal">(click for presentation)</a> 
Jacques Caltot, FCE-CFDT, France <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/rubber%20caltot.pdf" type="internal">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
13:00 Lunch 
 
14:30 Presentation: “Action Plan For Upcoming Period” Kemal Özkan, ICEM Chemical and Rubber Industries Officer <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/rubber%20kemal%204.pdf" type="internal">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
15:00 Fifth panel discussion: “How To Better Coordinate Global Union Solidarity, Support and Cooperation” 
Jerry Fernandez, USW, USA <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/rubber%20usw%202.pdf" type="internal">(click for presentation)</a> 
Phil McNulty, T&G-AMICUS, UK 
Pedro Vasiejko, SUTNA, Argentina 
Austin Natee, FAWUL, Liberia 
 
16:00 Coffee-break 
 
16:30 Discussions 
 
Summary of panels and presentation of action plan 
Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary 
 
16:45 Election of Industry Chairman 
 
Closing speech of Chairman 
 
17:00 End of the conference 
 
Thursday, May 14, 2009 
 
Departure of participants

ICEM World Conference for the Rubber Industry

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Following the release of the English and Arabic versions of the “ICEM Guide on Contact and Agency Labour (CAL),” the ICEM has now also released French, Spanish, and Russian versions of this important tool to assist unions around the world with their efforts in this growing area of work. 
 
The French version can be found <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/icem%20manual%20frans%2026032009def.pdf ">here</a>. 
The Spanish version can be found <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/icem%20manual%20spaans%20070420092.pdf ">here</a>. 
The Russian version can be found <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/icemmanualrussiandef.pdf ">here</a>. 
 
The English and Arabic versions of the manual, as well as the ICEM’s CAL campaign website can be found <a href="http://cal.icem.org">here</a>. 
 
The ICEM CAL Guide describes numerous problems faced by short-term contract workers, and by workers employed through temporary work agencies, containing a number of best - as well as worst - practices from around the world. 
 
The guide also provides an overview of some of the most recent changes in national and international labour laws and standards. It further deals with combating the phenomenon at company level through collective negotiations. Useful and encouraging examples, together with union strategies and ideas to counter the many abuses in this field, are also provided.

ICEM Releases Contract and Agency Manual in French, Spanish, Russian

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The German social-democratic organisation, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), released a briefing paper entitled “Comeback of Global Governance,” outlining the need for reform of mechanisms for global political and monetary governance. The current financial crisis is seen by many as the opportunity to reform global financial bodies, which fail both in terms of representation and of effectiveness. 
 
The past year has seen a list of failures in terms of global governance, from the Doha round of world trade talks to follow-up of the Monterrey Financing for Development Conference. Even the preliminary rounds of discussion at Posnan, Poland, environment and sustainability forums have illustrated significant obstacles in commitments over combating climate change. 
 
Arguably the most vital changes needed are inside the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose failings have become all too apparent during this current global recession. The current financial crisis is a clear indication of how urgently an effective global regulatory framework is needed in order to come to grips with the present crisis and to contain future excesses. The days of the World Bank and IMF governing the world on a neo-liberal agenda now must end. 
 
The IMF’s system of quotas and voting rights gives European countries an imbalanced amount of power that is no longer justified by their order in the world economy. Despite the limited voting-rights reform carried out in March 2008, the Benelux countries, for example, continue to have a higher quota than China. The reforms to the IMF that are on the agenda will go some way towards creating a fairer system, although they do not go far enough in ‘giving a voice to the voiceless.’ 
 
The current economic climate offers many alternatives for change. US President Barack Obama seeks to establish a new disarmament and non-proliferation treaty. German Chancellor Angela Merkel calls for a world economic council. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown advocate an international banking oversight commission. Germany and France, together with Russia and Brazil, promote a new global economic and financial architecture that has a special focus on regulating financial markets. 
 
Find the FES briefing paper <a href="http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/global/06319.pdf ">here</a>.

International Labour Calls for Reform of the Structures of Global Governance

Sappi: pulp & paper/pâte et de papier/pulp y papel

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Jens Bundvad of Danish trade union CO-industri was unanimously elected 11 June as General Secretary of Nordic-In, the five-nation, 22-member Trade Union Federation. The election occurred at Nordic-In’s biennial Congress in Stavanger, Norway. 
 
Bundvad succeeds Jyrki Raina, the federation’s first General Secretary who was elected to lead the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) last month. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0906jensNordicIn[1].jpg" width="120" height="166" alt=""/>
Jens Bundvad
Stefan Löfven remains the president of 1.2-million-member Nordic-In, which effectively covers industrial workers in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Löfven is also president of the Swedish union, IF Metall. 
 
Nordic-In came into existence in January 2006 with the merger of Nordic Metal and the Nordic Industry Workers’ Federation (NIF). Its mission is to coordinate policies and actions of the Nordic trade unions, especially within European industry federations European Metal (EMF), EMCEF, and the European Textile, Clothing, and Leather Federation, as well as globally with the ICEM, IMF, and the International Textile, Garment, and Leathers Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF).

Nordic-In Elects Jens Bundvad as General Secretary

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The threats of strikes are now on in mining in South Africa, following the latest rounds of talks in several mining sectors. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) filed for dispute resolution last week with the country’s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) in gold talks with the Chamber of Mines. 
 
In coal talks on Friday, some progress was noted on benefits and working conditions, although the NUM and other unions remain far apart on wages. Employers, through the Chamber, are offering 7.5% for lower-paid colliery workers and 6.5% for others. 
 
The talks in the gold sector, covering 150,000 miners, went to government intervention following the Chamber’s refusal to offer more than 7%, a few percentage points less that South Africa’s current consumer price index. In 2008, that inflation index hit 11.5%, while the current food index is at 14.9%. The NUM is seeking 15% and the possibility of a strike in the gold sector is likely. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0610NUMFransBaleni1.jpg" width="100" height="142" alt=""/>
NUM General Secretary Frans Beleni
“It has always been our intention to bargain in good faith, to try to reach a settlement through negotiations,” said NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni. This year, he added, he NUM may have “to use a different tool in strike action.” The NUM is standing behind a 12th Congress mandate from late May that calls for significant wage increases across the mining sector. 
 
At that Congress, NUM President Senzeni Zokwana said, “Let no union leader believe we are going to settle for low wages. We will demand a living wage for mine workers, construction workers, and energy workers.” Talks in all NUM sectors are now in critical stages. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0810Senzeni3.jpg" width="90" height="105" alt=""/>
Senzeni Zokwana
In platinum mining negotiations, Anglo Platinum’s wage offer of 6% was rejected by the NUM and further talks are scheduled for 25-26 June. The union is seeking 15% with AngloPlats, while it has a 20% wage proposal tabled before Impala Platinum. It also seeks a moratorium on hiring and promotions of white women at Implats, the world’s second larger platinum producer, as well as a pension fund increase from 16.5% to 25%. Talks there are to resume on 17 June. 
In coal talks, progress was made on establishing employee stock ownership plans at companies which offer no such plans, and some progress was noted over language on sub-contracting. Talks in coal will resume on 18 June. 
In all South African mining sector talks, the NUM is pressing for full work rights and guarantees for contract workers, and an end to the use of labour brokers. The union is also seeking a six-month paid maternity leave in several sets of negotiations. 
 
The biannual wage talks are being conducted with the Chamber of Mines on behalf of several mining houses, as well as directly and bi-laterally with some major mining companies, most specifically the platinum producers and Harmony Gold. 
 
In an unrelated matter, the NUM scored a decisive Labour Court victory over diamond miners DeBeers. The court ruled that DeBeers violated the labour Relations Act when it bypassed dialogue with the NUM over severance payments for miners made redundant. The court decision, ordering payment for 1,467 displaced diamond miners, was a victory for the NUM, which argued successfully that due process under Section 189A of the labour statute, was violated.

Wage Talks Stall Across South Africa Mining Sector

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