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A coal mine blast in China that killed four women on 6 April has drawn angry responses from women’s groups. Nine miners died when the explosion occurred at Dongtang Coal Mine in central Hunan Province. Production at the mine had been suspended earlier this year when owners had failed to apply for a work safety certificate. Since 1993, Chinese mine safety law forbids women from working in underground mines. 
 
The gas blast, in which five miners—including two women—managed to escape, caused local police to detain owners and investors of the enterprise. But the production manager of the Dongtang Mine and his wife fled the area as soon as word of the blast occurred. 
 
In a another mine catastrophe, seven miners died and four were injured on 11 April when a shaft collapsed at the Tanhan Coal Mine in Shanxi Province.

Chinese Coal Mine Blast Kills Four Women

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Protests occurred both outside and inside DuPont’s annual general meeting in the US state of Delaware on 26 April, as labour unions led by the United Steelworkers (USW) and environmental allies pressed the world’s second largest chemicals company to phase out production of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The chemical is used to produce coatings for cookware and stain-repellent coatings for carpets, textiles and fast-food wrappers. 
 
USW is part of a coalition entitled “Dupont Shareholders for Fair Value” that pressed for adoption of a resolution calling on management to produce a report on options to accelerate the phase-out of PFOA. The proxy question put before shareholders garnered a 27.3% vote, considered extremely high on matters of social and ethical responsibility for US-based companies. Further information on the union’s shareholder actions can be found through the USW site <a href="http://www.uswa.org/uswa/program/content/2916.php">here</a>.

Protest of PFOA at DuPont’s Annual Meeting

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A dispute has been settled and a first collective agreement is in place in Malaysia’s paper industry. ICEM assisted its affiliate Paper and Paper Products Manufacturing Employees’ Union (PPPMEU), as did Norwegian trade union Fellesforbundet in achieving recognition and a contract at a Malaysian Newsprint Industries mill in Pahang. 
 
Malaysian Newsprint is 34% owned by Norske Skog, with whom ICEM and Fellesforbundet have a Global Framework Agreement. The matter was brought before the Norwegian-based company by Fellesforbundet. 
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A union was formed at the nine-year-old mill in October 2004 and, in March 2005, a government ministry verified PPMEU certification. The union submitted proposals toward a first collective agreement in July 2005, but the company stalled in meeting its bargaining obligations. When the company finally did meet with the union, it informed the union that 70 of 220 workers were in “executive” capacities and exempt from the union, even though they perform manual tasks. 
 
The ICEM and Fellesforbundet attention to the dispute, and no doubt the formal intent-to-strike notice issued by PPPMEU on 15 May, brought pressure on management to settle. The initial three-year collective agreement will be backdated to 1 October 2005. Even though the scope of the bargaining unit wasn’t resolved, it will now be submitted to a Malaysian Industrial Court. Other partners in the newsprint mill include the Hong Leong Group of Malaysia (34%), the New Straits Times newspaper (21%), and Rimbuan Hijau Group of Malaysia (11%).

Global Agreement, Strike Threat Brings First Accord to Malaysian Paper Mill

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ICEM’s rubber and chemical workers’ affiliate in Turkey, Lastik-Īş, announced late in April that it would strike the four Turkish plants of three major tyre producers if the companies did not take a different track in negotiations. But that announcement was pre-empted by one of the companies, Goodyear Lastikleri AS, which locked out 1,300 workers at its two Turkish factories. 
 
Lastik-Īş has been negotiating with Goodyear, Pirelli Lastikleri, and Brisa Bridgestone Sabanci since mid-December over a renewal agreement covering 3,500 workers. Demands by employers for concessions on health care provisions, lower rates of pay for new workers, reductions in paid holidays, and flexibility regarding the use of contract workers caused the union’s Executive Board to call strikes at the plants starting on 22 May. 
<img height="66" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/TurkeyFlag.gif" width="100"/>
In a statement issued by Lastik-Īş, the union said: “The main reason why the conflict has continued so far is not the demands of our union, but the attitudes of employers who insist on dismantling our gained rights.” 
 
Goodyear Lastikleri AS, 74.6% owned of Goodyear Tire and Rubber of the US, sacked a total of 109 workers at its tyre plants in Izmit and Adapazari in November 2005, as part of a restructuring move. Brisa Bridgestone Sabanci, in which Bridgestone of Japan controls a 40% stake, employs 1,000 workers at a plant in Izmit, while Italian Pirelli employs another 1,100 workers at a facility, also in Izmit.

Goodyear Jumps Gun; Locks Out Turkish Tyre Workers

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ExxonMobil in France has been found guilty of trade union discrimination, and ordered to pay €322,000 to four trade union representatives affiliated with French federation CGT. The ruling was issued on 5 May from a court of conciliation in Nanterre. 
 
Three of the four CGT delegates work at Esso’s Port-Jérôme refinery, while the fourth is employed at an Esso facility at Fos-sur-mer. The largest award — €210,000 — went to a key union person who had been on the job for 34 years. 
 
CGT said the court’s findings and awards stand as a call to young workers that it is allowed for militant trade union members “not to think like the boss, but on the contrary be free to think differently, not having your professional career sanctioned” because you do.

Guilty: ExxonMobil in France for Trade Union Discrimination

Probes into deadly coal mine disasters in the Americas earlier this year are now coming into focus. And at two of the worst – the Sago mine blast in the US state of West Virginia on 2 January and the 19 February explosion at Grupo Mexico’s Pasta de Conchos No. 8 mine in Mexico’s Coahuila state – inadequate government safety monitoring and a reckless company safety culture are just part of the causes.
                      
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<img height="53" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USAFlag.gif" width="100"/>
  
In Mexico, a report issued last week by the government’s National Human Rights Commission said, in 2004, safety officials of Mexico’s Labour Department identified 48 major problems in Grupo Mexico’s Minera Mexicana mine. The report added, however, that nothing was done to correct the deficiencies until just 12 days before the explosion. Sixty-five miners were killed in the February 2006 mine blast, the majority of them contract workers who were given no training and inadequate oxygen supply devices. Some 25 of the miners killed were members of Mexico’s Miners & Metalworkers Union (SNTMMSRM). 
 
The Human Rights Commission stated that Labour Department officials tolerated carelessness and neglect on behalf of company safety representatives, and that they “had full knowledge of the working conditions of the mine where the catastrophe occurred (that) infringed on security standards,” said a statement from the agency. The government knew of problems with lighting and underground signal systems, as well as gas and oil leaks and a faulty smoke-release system. 
 
In the US, a joint state and federal investigation into the Sago disaster that killed 12 miners has found that company officials had workers falsify documents. Testimony saw workers admitting they had signed documentation brought to them by bosses that they had attended safety classes and training, when, if fact, they had not. Sago is owned by the Wolf Run Mining Co., one of many coal mines in the eastern United States bought in bankruptcy proceedings by US-based investment house International Coal Group (IGC).
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 An in-depth investigation done by a Pennsylvania newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also found that seals inside the non-union Sago mine’s safety chambers were poorly constructed, using materials unable to withstand the force of a methane explosion. 
 
IGC attempted to bar safety officials from ICEM affiliate United Mineworkers of America (UMWA) from playing a role in the Sago disaster’s investigation, even though miners and family members of victims sought such help. Under mine safety regulations in the US, such union assistance in non-union worksites is permissible if so requested. IGC had private security forces physically stop UMWA safety officials from entering the mine property following the explosion, and the US government had to sue the company in order that the mine safety law was honoured. A US District Court ruled in favour of UMWA involvement late in January, but IGC appealed that ruling to a higher court. Last month, the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court’s verdict.

Mine Safety Probes in the Americas Progress

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South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will conduct week-long commemorations all this week in tribute to a defining mining strike that occurred 60 years ago on 12 August. 
 
Hundreds of miners, then part of NUM’s predecessor, the Black Mineworkers’ Union, struck on that day in 1946 at Witwatersran for a wage increase of 60 shillings and an end to single sex hostels. The strike was met by white police and the private security forces of the mining bosses, who violently put down the strike, maiming and killing several mineworkers in the process. 
 
“It is important to recall the contributions made by these black mineworkers, their resilience and resistance under difficult times,” stated NUM President Senzeni Zokwana, who also is President of the ICEM. Zokwana specifically mentioned the names of J.B. Marks, J.J. Majoro, and Thabo Mofutsanyane as courageous trade union leaders who made a stand on behalf of black mineworkers. 
 
“The fact that the NUM is here today is due to the early efforts of these leaders and workers in organising mineworkers,” Zokwana said. 
 
The commemorations started yesterday when African National Congress Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe addressed a NUM memorialisation event in Welkom, Free State. All of NUM’s 11 regions will conduct activities this week that will culminate in a march on Saturday, 12 August, on the offices of the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg. On Wednesday, 9 August, a tribute honouring the 50th Anniversary of the Women’s March to Union Buildings will be held. This will recognise the constraints still facing women who work in South Africa’s mining industry, as well as honouring women who have lost their husbands in mining accidents.

60th Anniversary of South Africa’s Witwatersran Mining Strike Occurs This Week

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Copper Miners in Chile at Minera Escondida Ltda. were set to strike today, at 08h00, following an unacceptable wage offer made by management on Friday, 4 August. With 8% of the world’s copper supply originating from Escondida in northern Chile, this dispute is being watched closely because it could send copper prices to new highs. 
 
Escondida Workers’ Union No. 1, representing over 2,000 copper miners, said over the weekend that an improved company offer still fell short of union demands. Management, led by BHP Billiton, had asked the government for the mandatory five-day cooling off period last week, making any strike before today illegal. 
 
The company’s offer Friday raised a one-off traditional pay bonus for each worker to US$21,481 from US$15,000, but it held firm on its prior salary offer of 3% above Chile’s inflation rate. The proposal also promises social improvements in the community of Antofagasta, as well as interest-free loans to workers. 
 
The union is seeking a 13% salary increase due to high inflation rates plaguing Chile’s booming mining areas. It also seeks zone allocation pay and a US$29,629 one-off bonus. Workers’ Union No. 1 also claims that management has failed to address certain conditions for working women, particularly truck drivers. 
 
Any Escondida salary settlement is expected to be the defining pattern for upcoming wage and benefit negotiations with other mining enterprises in Chile, including bargaining units within huge state-run copper company Codelco. 
 
Minera Escondida Ltda., with two open pit mines in Chile’s northern Region II, is 57.5% owned by BHP Billiton, 30% by Rio Tinto, 10% by a consortium of Japanese companies led by Mitsubishi, and 2.5% by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.

Copper Miners Poised to Strike Today in Chile

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A highly successful ICEM women’s conference for the Asia-Pacific Region was held 27-28 July in Bangkok, Thailand. Attended by 22 trade unionists from six countries, the conference generated much discussion and several ideas for communicating effective practices related to gender issues globally. 
 
Topics discussed included maintaining a manageable work-life balance, work inside Asia’s pharmaceuticals industry, and maternity issues. Related to the latter, participants debated and devised model standards for trade unionists on maternity leave. 
 
ICEM affiliated trade unions attending came from India, Japan, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, and Thailand. ICEM-JAF of Japan helped to sponsor the two-day discussions.

Asia-Pacific Women’s Conference Fosters Maternity Leave Guide

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Riot police in southern Peru battled striking contract workers at Chinese state company Shougang Hierro Perú SA recently, leaving seven seriously injured, including the wives of three workers. Some 600 contract workers employed by three cooperatives began a strike at Peru’s only iron ore operation late in the evening on 7 August. 
 
The strike ended on 16 August, but not before police used excessive force to seriously injure the seven, including one person who nearly died. Twenty-eight other workers were detained during the police violence, which occurred on 9 and 10 August as strikers blocked roads leading to the mine in Marcona, department of Ica.
<img height="150" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0608PeruShougang2.jpg" width="200"/> 
 
César García Hernández, a contract worker, 
injured by police
One of Peru’s national labour centres, the Confederación General de Trabajores del Perú (CGTP), which helped resolve the eight-day strike, decried the violence, calling it an “inexplicable act by police to protect the interests of a foreign company.” Reportedly, police used heavy sticks, their boots and threw tear gas canisters at the strikers in order to disperse them. Eyewitness accounts said police were particularly abusive to women by kicking them as they cooked for the strikers. 
 
The strike had the effect of shutting the mine since some 900 permanent workers, trade unionists of ICEM affiliate Federación Nacional de Trabajores Mineros, Metalúrgicos Y Siderúrgicos del Perú (FNTMMSP), honoured strike lines. In June, following a week-long strike, the union won wage and bonus increases for the permanent workforce. 
In a statement, FNTMMSP condemned the social conditions that contract workers of the three cooperatives work under, including failure by the companies to recognise workers’ collective bargaining rights. FNTMMSP called the establishment of the cooperatives a scam “to evade all kinds of legal responsibilities and obligations.” The union said the contracting companies fail to provide a decent and just salary, violate standard work rule requirements, and do not provide extra wages for night work or allow contract workers to take holidays. 
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The three cooperatives are Sercolima Sac, La Cooperativa del Solar Ltda., or Coopsol, and Cooperativa Santo Domingo de Intermediación Laboral de Shougang. 
 
The strike ended after negotiations occurred between the primary employer, the subcontractors, the CGTP, and the government. Contract workers did not achieve all salary objectives, but did gain a US$1-per-day salary increase. The parties also reconciled some of the outstanding grievances, including the immediate reinstatement of three workers who had been discharged.

Police Attack Striking Contract Workers at Peru’s Iron Ore Mine

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