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Despite increased labour and human rights pressure on the Islamic regime, Iran’s government is still refusing access and giving misleading reports on the condition of imprisoned transport union leader Mansour Osanloo. The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is calling recent efforts to reach Osanloo by Indonesian activists a “cynical catalogue of dirty tricks” by Iran. 
 
The government assured Indonesian trade unionists seeking to visit Osanloo in Tehran’s Evin prison the week of 8 October that the he was receiving treatment for a two-year-old eye injury. The Indonesian activists, as well as Osanloo’s wife, Parvenah, were told by authorities that they could not visit the 47-year-old trade unionist because he was receiving treatment.
<img height="101" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0710FreeOsanloo.jpg" width="120"/>
But a prison doctor admitted to the Indonesians later that, if he is not treated within the next two weeks, he could go blind. The Indonesians that visited Iran were Hanafi Rusrandi, Seafarers' Union president and ITF's national coordinating committee chairman, and Syukur Sarto, the general secretary of national centre FSPSI.
“The Iranian government is piling outrage on outrage, digging deeper and deeper into a barrel of dirty tricks,” said ITF general David Cockroft. “All the evidence we have is that this is a cold blooded and deliberate attempt to weaken and undermine the most significant union leader in Iran today.” 
<img height="100" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ITF.jpg" width="100"/>
Osanloo was arrested for the third time on 10 July 2007, following a tour of European labour institutions and labour unions, in which he spoke openly of labour abuses and restrictions on freedom of association in Iran. He has been in prison since. In May 2005, he sustained eye injuries when beaten by Iranian security forces. Osanloo is the leader of Sherkat-e Vahed, the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Workers’ Union. 
 
The ITF, last week, released a video entitled “Freedom Will Come” on his story and the story of bus workers’ efforts to organise in Tehran. It was posted late last week on YouTube and will shortly be available on DVD. The London-based Global Union Federation has also launched a petition campaign in support of Osanloo. It can be found <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/freeosanloo.cfm">here</a>.

‘Dirty Tricks’ Imposed by Iranian Government over Imprisonment of Mansour Osanloo

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Contract workers represented by ICEM UK affiliate Unite began the first of industrial actions at a Kimberly-Clark paper mill in Northfleet, Kent, on 12 October. The 38 workers of TDG, formerly called Transport Development Group, staged a 12-hour strike on that day, and they plan a further 24-hour strike over tomorrow and Wednesday, 23-24 October. 
<img height="302" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0710KCUK.jpg" width="200"/>
The London-based employer responded by replacing the members of the Amicus section of Unite on 12 October. The dispute is over lack of parity in 2007 pay raises between Kimberly-Clark workers at Northfleet, also members of Unite, and the TDG workers. In previous years, the company had matched raises that Kimberly-Clark workers received. 
 
At another UK tissue mill of Kimberly-Clark near Barrow-in-Furness, in Cumbria in northwest England, TDG did just that this year, granting a 4.5% pay increase. The TDG workers at both sites work in the warehouses of the American-based company. TDG has provided contract services for the paper-maker since 2002, and is a major European logistical and supply-chain distributor of chemicals and consumer goods. 
 
Trade unionists are encouraged to send letters of support to Unite’s representative, Paul Baker, at <a href="mailto:paul.baker@unitetheunion.org">paul.baker@unitetheunion.org</a>.

Paper Mill Logistic Workers Take Industrial Action in UK

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 World AIDS Day, 1 December 2007 
Leadership is the theme for World AIDS Day 2007. The ongoing campaign slogan of the World AIDS Campaign is “Stop AIDS – Keep the Promise”. 
 
Unions can demonstrate leadership at every level – in the workplace, in their own governing bodies, in women’s committees, in health and safety committees, in negotiations with companies, in the community and at the national policy level. 
 
Any union member, shop steward, union official, committee member, gender representative who takes action on HIV/AIDS is a leader in the fight against the deadly disease. 
 
At the end of October, the ICEM has sent out its own campaign leaflet together with material from UNAIDS/World AIDS Campaign. The leaflet in English, French, Spanish, German and Swedish is also available on the dedicated section on HIV/AIDS at <a href="/72-HIV-AIDS" type="internal">/72-HIV-AIDS</a>. 
 
Further campaign material and ideas can be found at <a href="http://www.worldaidscampaign.org">www.worldaidscampaign.org</a>, the website of the World AIDS Campaign. You can also find resources on the website of UNAIDS, the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, <a href="http://www.unaids.org">www.unaids.org</a> and at ILOAIDS <a href="http://www.ilo.org/aids">www.ilo.org/aids</a>. 
 
Union leaders, gathering in Bangkok, 22-24 November for the 4th ICEM World Congress, will pledge to fight HIV/AIDS anywhere in the world. 
ICEM calls on its affiliates to take the lead in campaigning on World AIDS Day, 1 December. 
Report back to the ICEM Global HIV/AIDS Coordinator <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org</a>. Send campaign materials and pictures. This will be published in the e-bulletin. 
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ICEM Regional Workshop on Medical Insurance 
All the coordinators from 12 sub-Saharan African countries participated in an ICEM regional workshop in Johannesburg in October. 
 
The purpose of this 5th workshop for national coordinators was to explore the role of medical insurance schemes in covering treatment of HIV/AIDS for workers and dependents. 
 
Participants examined the funding of schemes, aspects of the coverage of medical insurance schemes, employer-provided schemes, relationship and effects on public health systems and the role of unions in negotiating health insurance schemes and their participation in the governance of these schemes. 
Participants highlighted the need for Know-your-Status campaigns as the key to prevention. Voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) can, however, only be encouraged if universal access to treatment is in place and where human and labour rights such as job security, non discrimination and non stigmatisation were strong. 
 
Large companies, especially in the mining sector, had generally good schemes which included HIV/AIDS services for workers and also for dependents. Gaps were identified in the coverage of contract workers and in the lack of schemes at small and medium-size enterprises. Limitations of the schemes were also highlighted. These challenges included the cost to members as a proportion of their wages and that coverage often did not cover workers once they were no longer employed. 
 
While private company schemes provide coverage and, in remote areas, often are the only health services available, participants acknowledged that, as unionists, we must also advocate the strengthening of the public health sector. 
<img height="37" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="26"/>
News from Affiliates
ICEM’s affiliates in Tanzania, TUICO and TAMICO, have finalised their VCT Counsellors’ training programme. From 30 July to 26 August, seven unionists followed an intensive programme at the Muhimbili Health Information Centre. The course, with a total of 160 hours on 20 training days, included lectures and practical training sessions at the hospital, a practicum in the field and advanced skills training following the experience from the practicum. 
 
A similar programme was run for affiliates in South Africa. 
 
With the financial support from the project for national programmes, several countries implemented new activities (see also e-bulletin 23/24 of August/September). 
 
In Nigeria, NUPENG and PENGASSAN conducted a successful mobilisation for voluntary counselling and testing at the Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company among workers and members of the community. The campaign over four days in July resulted in 677 people being tested. 
 
In Uganda, UMMAWU organised a training workshop for union representatives and a peer educators’ course in September. 
 
MUZ and NUCIW of Zambia held two three-day peer educators’ workshops in July and August. 
 
Very encouraging developments can also be reported from Sierra Leone where the United Mineworkers’ Union took the initiative to submit a programme and was included in the project. So far UMU conducted two peer educators’ training workshops for shop stewards and community leaders in Daru Town and Tongo Field. 
 
UMU is also actively engaged with the social partners in the drafting of an HIV/AIDS policy for the mining sector.
<img height="37" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="26"/>
Global Fund: Debt2Health Initiative 
 
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has launched a "Debt2Health" initiative that could generate substantial funds. The initiative is a form of debt conversion, in which Western governments that are owed money by developing countries agree to cancel a portion of the debt on condition that the developing countries in question invest money in Global Fund-approved programmes. 
 
In the first Debt2Health implementation, the German government forgave 50 million Euros in debt by Indonesia, and Indonesia committed to investing the local equivalent of 25 million Euros in Global Fund programmes in Indonesia. Over the next four years, Germany plans to generate a total of 200 million Euros for Global Fund programmes through this initiative. The Global Fund hopes to enter into future Debt2Health agreements with Kenya, Pakistan and Peru. Further details are available <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/D2HMechanisms.pdf">here</a>. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer Issue 77, 30 September 2007. GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>. To receive GFO, send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 
<img height="37" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="26"/>
Still Losing the AIDS Fight 
Excerpts from an article by Richard Holbrooke, President of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: 
 
“On the day you read this column, an estimated 12,000 people worldwide will contract HIV. Ninety percent of them will not learn that they are infected until full-blown AIDS hits them – in 2015. Until then, those people will unintentionally spread the virus that lies silently within each of them. 
 
But on Dec 1, the 19th annual World AIDS Day, political leaders and international health officials will, once again, tell the world that although the fight is far from over, progress is being made. The fight is indeed far from over – but don’t believe the second half of such statements. 
 
It is heartening that more than 2 million HIV-positive people are on lifesaving antiretroviral drugs. But real progress must be measured by the only criterion that ultimately matters: Is the number of people who are HIV-positive declining? The answer is a resounding no. As a strategy to defeat HIV/AIDS, focusing primarily on treatment will never succeed. The only way to reverse the spread of HIV is to focus on prevention. 
 
Here is my challenge to the international health community: This year, tell the truth on World AIDS Day. Admit that we are still losing. Advocate strategies that emphasise prevention and detection, based on the successful “opt-out” testing systems being tried in Botswana, Lesotho and Malawi.” 
 
(Source: Washington Post, 9 October) 
<img height="37" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="26"/>
New Technical Support Publication by the GTZ BACKUP Initiative
The German GTZ BACKUP Initiative has published a guide on where technical support for capacity development of Global Fund recipients is most needed, who is able to provide it, and how to make best use of it. 
 
The guide, entitled "Accelerating action: A technical support guide to develop capacity and to benefit from global health financing," is intended for use by professionals working on HIV, TB and malaria projects that are financed by the Global Fund, World Bank, and other such mechanisms. The publication is available at <a href="http://www.gtz.de/backup-initiative">www.gtz.de/backup-initiative</a>. 
 
(Source: gtz website) 
<img height="37" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="26"/>
Botswana Continues Anti-AIDS Efforts
As far back as 2001, at the Special Session of the UN General Assembly, President Festus Mogae stated that his nation was threatened with extinction. Almost 40% of the population were infected with the virus and people were dying at a chillingly high rate. 
 
A year later, Botswana became the first country on the continent to provide antiretroviral drugs free of charge. 270,000 people are infected. Today, over 90,000 patients are receiving treatment. This is close to the figure of all of those infected for whom treatment is medically indicated. 
 
While Botswana, with an adult prevalence rate of 24%, is still among the most affected countries, the trend has been downward for many years. A programme for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission has been expanded; voluntary counselling and testing is encouraged as a critical entry point for all HIV/AIDS response programmes. 
 
Botswana now channels most of the international assistance it is receiving into prevention efforts. 
 
(Source: VOA, 9 October) 
<img height="37" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="26"/>
News from the Global Union Programme and Global Union Federations
In its most recent HIV/AIDS updates (no. 30 and 31 of 1 and 15 October) the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a> reports, among others, on its World AIDS Day Campaign for which a 16-page brochure was produced with guidelines for campaign activities. 
 
In September the ITF organised a planning workshop in Kolkata to extend its project in South Asia for another three years beyond the end of 2007. South Asia is facing a fast growing pandemic. 
 
In its most recent newsletter on EFA and HIV/AIDS Prevention at Schools, the Education International (EI) introduced its new World AIDS Day Initiative called “One Hour on AIDS”. Learners around the world will benefit from lessons on AIDS on the same day, 30 November. EI is putting together a kit specially designed for teachers - <a href="http://www.ei-ie.org/efaids">www.ei-ie.org/efaids</a>.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin

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The national labour centres of South Africa and Zimbabwe are advising that the world better get ready for a humanitarian crisis, since Zimbabwe’s economy is on the verge of a meltdown. 
 
In a joint statement, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said if current mediation efforts in Zimbabwe by the Southern Africa Development Community fail, the country’s “economy will collapse completely, with dire consequences for the poor of that country and the region.”
<img height="124" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Zimbabwe ZCTU.gif" width="120"/>
The statement came following meetings between COSATU and ZCTU in Johannesburg on 15 July, at which time COSATU committed to begin preparations for a possible humanitarian crisis. 
 
The two national centres agreed that now is the time to mobilize alliance partners and all of civil society for a humanitarian package for suffering Zimbabweans who have fled, and likely will flee in great numbers if Zimbabwe’s current economic reality continues. COSATU Sec. Gen. Zwelinzima Vavi said 5,000 Zimbabweans are arrested each week now as they attempt to enter South Africa.

National Labour Centres in South Africa, Zimbabwe Predict Refugee Crisis

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The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) again mourns the deaths of miners in South Africa. On 20 July, two miners perished 3,000 metres underground at AngloGold Ashanti’s Moab Khotsong mine near Orkney in Free State. 
 
The two miners became trapped when the ground around them caved in. Their bodies were recovered on 22 July. A third miner was rescued in the cave-in and was reported in stable condition in a hospital.
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The two deaths push AngloGold’s death rate in South Africa to 11 this, and the total recorded number of recorded deaths in the country’s mining sector to 110. AngloGold’s sister company, AngloPlatinum, leads all mining concerns in South Africa in recorded deaths with 17.
A day after the bodies at Moab Khotsong mine disaster were found, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica visited the site. She took the unusual step of ordering the mine closed, pending an investigation. Speaking to reporters, she said that her ministry would begin more rigid inspections and that profits must not come before lives. 
 
Because of the rising death toll in South Africa’s mines this year, the NUM has called for an urgent tripartite meeting to rescue South Africa's Mining Health and Safety Summit in order to address the current deficiencies in mine safety.

Two Workers Killed at AngloGold’s Mine in Free State, South Africa

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If any event defined the strength and vibrancy of a great trade union, that event started on the night of 9 August 1987 when the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) began the Great Mines Strike of South Africa, or “21 Days That Shook the Chamber,” as it claimed to be called. Although the wage gains the NUM was seeking were not achieved, the strike by 330,000 black miners 20 years ago proved to be a decisive catalyst in the struggle to end apartheid. 
 
The NUM marked the anniversary last week in South Africa as an event that “will be remembered for shaking the industry in a manner that was never seen before.” It also solemnly noted the deaths of nine striking miners at the hands of apartheid police, and the 50,000 miners who were fired by mining companies for actively leading the strike.
<img height="100" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector.JPG" width="100" alt=""/>
During 1987 wage bargaining between the employers’ Chamber of Mines and the Council of Mining Unions, representing white miners and officials, the unions accepted a 15% wage gain. But in separate bargaining with the NUM, the Chamber only offered 17% to black miners, who were paid much lower salaries than whites. NUM had lowered its demands to 24% at the time of the strike. 
 
Despite this, employers – led by the AngloAmerican Corporation, which employed the vast majority of unionised black miners – unilaterally implemented its offer. That caused the NUM to strike the first of some 60 gold and coal mines on 9 August. The Council of Mines thought the NUM too weak to sustain the early strikes, or to call out miners at more sites. 
 
But as the strike spread and more and more mines were idled, that proved to be a fallacy. 
 
A mining trade publication at the time reported: “The union has shown itself to be much better organized, its strike call well supported from the outset. The Chamber appears to have expected the NUM action to last only a few days as in earlier years and was somewhat surprised at the duration and solidarity of the union’s action and by its organisational capabilities, determination, and skill during the strike.”
<img height="101" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector5.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
NUM General Secretary Cyril Ramaphosa, the son of a Soweto policeman who was then only 35, provided strong leadership and staunch resolve. He also proved to be a visionary by calling 1987 the year that black mineworkers “take control … to start controlling our lives in the mines, in the hostels, and the places we live. 
 
He also said, “In the next few years, we are also going to take control of the work process, which dates back 100 years, when gold was discovered, during which the black workers have been like captive labour.” Ramaphosa also said of the 1987 strike, “The struggle we are involved in on the mines is a training ground for our people, for the ultimate goal which is liberation.” 
 
The need for struggle was epitomised in May 1987, shortly after the NUM adopted the South African Freedom Charter, began a coalition with the United Democratic Front, and marched with the slogans of the banned African National Congress. On the night of 7 May 1987, with NUM’s offices headquartered in the COSATU House in Johannesburg, special security police used explosives to blow the building up. A short three weeks later, NUM declared dispute with the mining houses over disparate wages, deficient health and safety practices for black miners, overcrowded hostels, and other grievances. 
 
Two weeks into the August mass strikes, realising that the NUM’s resolve could not be broken, mining companies used a quirk in South African industrial law that allowed employers to dismiss workers even when they are engaged in a legal strike. Some 50,000 NUM members were fired. That and the very survival of the NUM caused regional strike committees to decide to end the strike, and on 30 August black mineworkers returned to work with their heads held high. 
 
The mining journal said the NUM “has gained considerable stature as a result of its action,” adding that the union’s “influence is now widespread throughout the mining industry and that unionisation of black miners is likely to increase.”
<img height="95" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector4.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
About half of the 50,000 mines were eventually re-hired to mining jobs over the next few years, and many proved to be key organisers and effective trade union leaders. The strike also taught the NUM something about self-reliance. As an outgrowth of it, the NUM formed non-profit organisations that mitigated job losses in mining with skill development, as well as labour cooperatives and welfare funds for dependants of miners. 
 
Today, that influence is evident. With roughly two-thirds of NUM members regularly attending union meetings and a shop-steward structure second to none, the NUM stands as a beacon of light for safe, sustainable jobs in South Africa’s mining industry.

9 August: 20-Year Anniversary of NUM’s Great Mines Strike in South Africa

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China's second worst coal mine disaster in modern history came on 17 August 2007, when 181 miners were trapped and died inside two mines in the Shandong Province. The tragedy was the result of both flash flooding and negligence by privately-owned Huayuan Mining Co. when a levee broke on the nearby Wenhe River. 
 
Two smaller mines in the same area were evacuated due to heavy rains near the town of Xintai, in this eastern Chinese province. But Huayuan company officials kept mining operations going in crowded mine shafts, some 860 metres below the surface. A total of 584 miners managed to escape the flash flooding, after a 50-metre wide gap in the levee gave way adjacent to the mine. 
<img height="88" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/China.png" width="200" alt=""/>
It is believed this mine disaster only trails a February 2005 gas explosion at the Sunjiawan coal mine in Liaoning Province, killing 214 miners, as China's worst mining tragedy. 
 
In the days following the Huayuan coal mine disaster, at least three other mining accidents in China claimed the lives of another 22 miners. 
 
On 23 August, a water break at a coal mine in Panzhihua city, in the south-western province of Sichuan, drowned eight miners. A gas explosion on 24 August at the Xinglong Mine in Chongqing claimed the lives of seven miners, while 18 others escaped. 
<img height="101" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector5.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
And on 25 August, another gas blast killed seven. That occurred at the Liyuan coal mine in Huolin city, Inner Mongolia. The Liyuan mine was undergoing reconstruction and should not have been producing coal. 
 
China's State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) Director Li Yizhong has targeted closure of another 1,000 small mines by the end of the year, bringing up to 10,000 the number of such mines officially closed. These mines are defined as producing less than 30,000 tonnes per year, and are generally considered as unsafe or operating illegally. 
 
In contrast, the Huayuan mine in Shandong Province, which was state-owned until 2004, produces between 600,000 and 700,000 tonnes of coal per annum.

Floods Kill 181 in China's Second Most Deadly Mine Disaster

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We sharply repudiate the deliberate actions by the Colombian government to go against its function of being the counterweight between the weakest in society and the economic elite, taking advantage of the legal apparatus to attack trade union institutions legitimately elected by the workers, to break collective agreements , to close companies and reopen them with a different legal personality, with the specific aim of breaking the back of these organizations and voiding legally concluded collective agreements, with the explicit objective of lowering wages and salaries, eliminating rights and benefits and making work precarious. 
We protest against the systematic violation of ILO conventions by the Uribe government, primarily conventions 87 and 98. We demand an end to this persecution and the murders of trade union leaders in Colombia. 
 
Resolution passed at the ICEM Latin American Energy Meeting, 29 and 30 August 2007, Montevideo, Uruguay.

ICEM resolution on Colombia - ICEM Latin America energy meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay

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At a spirited rally at the Rotterdam portion of Unilever’s AGM on 15 May, ICEM Dutch affiliate FNV Bondgenoten issued a stern warning to the giant food and chemicals concern: focus more on long term stability and the concerns of all stakeholders, rather than on a current call by investors to restructure for quick profits. 
 
Union members and their allies, namely the 40,000-member Association of Shareholders, a collection of institutional and individual shareholders, called on the company to resist the break-up, the closure of certain businesses, or the selling-off to private equity funds, or other market capital funds. 
<img height="199" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0705Rotterdam1.jpg" width="300"/>
ICEM's presence at Rotterdam rally, including Chemical officer Kemal Ozkan and ICEM Vice-President Ben Roodhuizen (centre)
The rally preceded Unilever’s general meeting at Rotterdam’s World Trade Centre. The following day, 16 May, the company held the London portion of its annual meeting, at which time Mike Treschow was installed as Unilever chairman. Treschow is a noted master of retrenchments, having previously maximized quick profits at the expense of jobs at Ericsson telecom and Electrolux. 
 
FNV Bondgenoten warned that the strategy of creating excessive shareholder value at Unilever is now playing too large a role. “I fear that in the short term, Unilever will become prey to activist hedge funds,” stated Bondgenoten President Henk van der Kolk. “In the eyes of these funds, Unilever is a company from which more profit can be squeezed.” 
 
“Unilever has always been a company with a good name, a company that has looked out for the interests of its workers,” van der Kolk added. “Now workers are only seen as a cost factor. The less you have, the better. That now appears to be the thinking at Unilever.” 
<img height="232" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0705Rotterdam2.jpg" width="200" alt=""/>
FNV Bondgenoten President Henk van der Kolk
On 1 June, the union will submit a work plan to senior management of Unilever. FNV Bondgenoten is asking shareholders to support that plan, which couples social responsibility with curtailment of the power of shareholders. Jobs and job security are high on its agenda, as is upcoming collective bargaining in The Netherlands. Bondgenoten said that the first part of the work plan applies to Dutch operations of the multinational, but that the plan could also be applied more broadly to the company’s 200,000 workers worldwide. 
 
Also speaking at the rally were a member of parliament and workers from Mumbai, India, which are members of the Hindustan Lever Employees Union. Their situation depicts Unilever at its worst. In order to avoid social dialogue with that union, which is an affiliate of the International Union of Food & Allied Workers’ Association (IUF), management sold the operation to a shell company in order to avoid its lawful social obligations.

FNV Bondgenoten Warns of Unilever Break Up

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The annual meeting of the Steering Committee of ICEM’s Bridgestone Global Union Network of Workers was held in Tokyo, Japan, on 22-23 June. The Japanese Rubber Workers’ Union Confederation (GOMU-RENGO) hosted this seventh annual meeting of the network, and also chairs the Bridgestone network. 
 
As decided at the 2006 meeting of the network, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, participants presented very detailed reports on occupational health and safety. The unions present gave the numbers of accidents occurring in 2006 at their respective factories, and presented their efforts on how they are attempting to prevent accidents. 
 
Along with the extensive safety reports, participants reported on general economic conditions of the tyre industry, as well as on work and economic conditions in their particular plants and respective countries and regions. The Bridgestone Workers’ Union of Japan also submitted substantive information and data on Bridgestone. 
<img height="256" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0706Bridgestone.jpg" width="390"/>
Participants at the ICEM Bridgestone meeting
The union representatives on the steering committee include the São Paulo Rubber Workers Union of Brazil (FUB), representing Latin America; the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA), representing Africa; the Federation of Related Industries of Spain (FIA-UGT), representing Europe; the United Steelworkers of the US, representing North America; and ICEM’s Japanese Affiliates Federation (ICEM-JAF), representing the Asia-Pacific Region, as well as GOMU-RENGO, which chairs the network. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda gave participants a Secretariat report, and spoke on the Global Union Federation’s general policies, specifically global union networks and global framework agreements. He referred to motions to be submitted to the 4th ICEM World Congress, to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, in November 2007, particularly one on “social dialogue and corporate campaigns.” 
 
ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries Officer Kemal Ozkan, presented a general report on recent developments in the rubber industry, including raw materials, market trends, new technologies, and industrial policies, such as nanotechnology. He also reported on the Strategic Approach of International Chemicals Management (SAICM) and on CO2 emissions. 
 
He pointed to trends in the non-tyre rubber industry and the close links that the sector has with the auto industry. Ozkan also summarised networking activity of the ICEM in the rubber industry and talked about the recent collective bargaining outcomes in the US, Australia, and Argentina. 
 
The steering committee took a decision to hold the 2008 Bridgestone Global Union Network of Workers in the US, upon the invitation of the USW.

ICEM’s Bridgestone Rubber Workers’ Network Meets in Japan

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