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<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The ICEM expressed deep condolences to the families of 29 miners declared dead on 24 November at the Pike River coal mine disaster in New Zealand, as well as to their trade union – affiliate Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU). 
 
In a letter to EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said, “It is with great sadness that the ICEM has learned of the deaths of 29 miners. Please accept my heartfelt condolences. 
 
“We will now support your call for a full and thorough investigation into the causes of this terrible accident, and for all of the bodies to be returned as soon as possible to their families. The explosion illustrates the importance of our shared work in improving safety standards in mines, and moving the New Zealand Government toward ratification and proper implementation of ILO Convention 176, on safety and health in mines.” (Full letter <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/145.ICEM.EPMU.New%20Zealand.24Nov.pdf" type="internal">here</a>.) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1011.epmu.pike.river.jpg" width="208" height="161"/>
Inside Pike River mine, before accident, Photo: NZPA
The miners, trapped since 19 November by a horrid methane gas explosion at Pike River Coal Ltd.’s coking coal mine inside the Paparoa Range on the South Island, were declared dead 24 November by police charged with rescue. (See ICEM’s initial report <a href="/en/5-Mining-DGOJP/4115-Hope-Still-Alive-for-29-Trapped-Inside-Pike-River’s-New-Zealand-Coal-Mine" type="internal">here</a>.) The police announcement came minutes after a second massive explosion that lasted 30 seconds occurred inside the company’s mine of the Brunner coal seam at 14h37, local time, Wednesday. The Pike River mine is located 50 kilometres from Greymouth . 
 
Rescue attempts proved prohibitive for six days because of high levels of methane gas and carbon monoxide that were registered inside. News of the secondary explosion on 24 November and improbability that the 29 could have survived was brought to grief-stricken family members at 16h00 in Greymouth by Pike River CEO Peter Whittal. “Exactly what we said would happen happened,” he told reporters in explaining why rescuers had not been sent into the mine. Some 90 skilled mine rescuers, many flown in from Australia, were on standby for those five days. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/People/EPMU Andrew Little.jpg" width="182" height="173"/>
EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little
EPMU National Secretary Little said: “News of this second devastating explosion means there is now no prospect of a successful rescue and the lives of the 29 men trapped inside have been lost. It is time to let the families and the community grieve. 
 
“Most of the miners killed were our comrades in the union, including Blair Sims who was an EPMU delegate at the Pike River mine,” Little said. “The EPMU will now make the practical arrangements to establish a fund to assist the families of the men whose lives have been lost.” 
 
Little added the EPMU now calls on the government “to establish an independent inquiry to investigate the circumstances of the explosion, including a public hearing in front of a senior judge and leading technical experts,” adding the union will do everything possible to assist the investigation. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1011.epmu.blair.sims.jpg" width="175" height="175"/>
EPMU Delegate Blair Sims
Sims was a 28-year-old loving husband and father of two small children. He was an exceptional rugby player who for the past two seasons was New Zealand West Coast player of the year. Eleven of the 29 miners were EPMU members. Those perishing included 16 full-time workers of Pike River Coal Ltd., owned 31% owned by New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd., and 13 contract employees. 
 
Little, who received the news 90 minutes after the blast yesterday, told New Zealand media that “miners are special people. They are the foundation rock that much of New Zealand was built on. When you lose special people like that, 29 all in one go, it is a hard thing. I don’t think any of us can imagine what the families will be going through tonight.” 
 
The EPMU is assisting by setting up the “EPMU Pike River Miners Family Support Trust” to collect donations to support the 29 families. See more information on how to give financial support to the families of the dead miners <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1011.EPMU%20Pike%20River%20Miners%20Family%20Support%20Trust%20-%20flyer.pdf" type="internal">here</a>. 
 
"Miners around the world are grieving their fallen comrades," said ICEM and South Africa's NUM President Senzeni Zokwana, "our struggle continues to ensure our members safety at work." 
 
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key today will name a High Court judge along with two other high-level people to a Royal Commission of Inquiry to determine accountability for the Pike River tragedy. One of those members is expected to be an international mine safety expert. 
 
As well, other investigations will be conducted by Kiwi governmental agencies, and the EPMU will assemble its own team of legal and technical experts. Little welcomed Key’s announcement after a Cabinet meeting today that a Royal Commission will convene. 
 
“This is a huge disaster by any account and what we do in response will be scrutinized around the world, especially in other Commonwealth countries whose nationals were among those killed,” Little said. 
 
Besides 24 New Zealanders who perished inside the Pike River mine, two Australians, two UK nationals who were Scotsmen, and one South African also died. 
 
See photos of all the lost Pike River miners <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/pike-river-miners/news/headlines.cfm?c_id=1503001">here</a>.

Together with EPMU, ICEM Mourns Deaths of 29 Miners in New Zealand

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The ICEM is calling on its affiliates to mark World AIDS Day. 
 
First observed in 1988, World AIDS Day on 1 December has served to raise awareness about the epidemic, focus attention on issues that are key to a successful response and inspire positive action. The theme of World AIDS Day for 2009 and 2010 is “Universal Access and Human Rights”. 
 
This year, a global “Lights for Rights Commemoration” is organised in 100 cities. When lights are turned off, darkness represents how stigma, discrimination, and criminalisation forces people to die alone in fear and shame, while switching the lights on symbolises the human rights of all people, which allows one to walk in the light of information, treatment and care. 
 
HIV/AIDS is a social disease. HIV transmission mainly takes place along the fault lines caused by poverty, gender inequality and social injustice. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1011.world_aids_day_poster_non[1].gif" width="132" height="171" alt=""/>
HIV/AIDS is a workplace issue. The workplace is crucial for successful action to combat the pandemic. 
 
HIV and AIDS funds are in recession due to the impact of the global financial crisis; HIV and AIDS are not in recession. Still for every three people put on treatment five more become infected. That is why awareness and prevention as well as advocacy for voluntary counselling and testing are crucial in the fight against the epidemic. These are also cornerstones of the ICEM HIV/AIDS project. 
 
HIV is also a human rights issue, closely related to workplace non-discrimination laws and regulations. The ICEM calls on its affiliates to negotiate and adopt HIV/AIDS workplace policies, which are rights-oriented, non-discriminatory and do not victimise people living with HIV and AIDS. 
 
An important development in 2010 was the adoption by the 99th International Labour Conference of the new ILO Recommendation 200 on HIV and AIDS and the World of Work. The ICEM is committed to support the implementation of this strong new instrument on HIV and AIDS. 
 
The ICEM calls on its affiliates to join campaigners and organisations in their country to highlight universal access and human rights.

1 December – World AIDS Day

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
ICEM Nigerian affiliate the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) is demanding the immediate release of its 10 members who were aggressed and arrested at work at 10.30am last Thursday, 25 November. 
 
The employees of oil multinational Halliburton did not know who the armed men were who arrived at company offices in Lagos, after attacking the security guards at the entrance. The men were officers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), investigating the bribery and corruption scandal around Halliburton and the multi-million dollar bribes paid to top government officials in exchange for the contract to build Africa's first liquefied natural gas plant in Bonny, Rivers state. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0805BanatundeOgunPengPres1.jpg" width="100" height="150" alt=""/>
PENGASSAN President Babatunde Ogun
It is widely suspected that the bribery and corruption reached the very top levels of government and the establishment in Nigeria, including three former presidents. This is another reason why PENGASSAN are angered by the arrests of their members. 
 
PENGASSAN President, Comrade Babatunde Ogun said, “Many Nigerian names appeared on the Halliburton investigating list in the United States and Nigeria. Names of three former heads of states, Late Gen. Sani Abacha, Gen.Abdusalami Abubakar (rtd) and President Olusegun Obasanjo as well as the ministers of Petroleum under their regimes were implicated as recipients of bribes. Why is it that it is only innocent Nigerians that the EFCC picked?” 
 
Those arrested and brutalised by the EFCC are Jarvis Peter, Hans Kempeneers, Liliy Adiogu, Lawal Yakubu, Iseoluwa Ogundele, Efe Collins, Isa Saibu, Barnabas Iroegbulem, Chi-Ukpai, and Theodore Okonkwo. 
 
The association also condemned the barbaric nature with which the anti-corruption agency carried out its operations at Halliburton office on November 25, 2010, by beating the workers and molesting the female staff, which have been reported by Branch Chairman of the union Abel O. Agarin.

Police Brutally Arrest Innocent PENGASSAN Members

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
ICEM Swedish affiliate IF Metall launched a new campaign ‘Strong Together’, 20 November, to highlight the strength of their local trade union reps, and to illustrate that there is power in unity. That message was made with members picking up cars at the locals in the cities of Kiruna, Umeå, Eskilstuna, Trollhättan, Gothenburg and Malmö. 
 
“Alone you cannot lift a car, but together we can,” said Jan Thelin, a shop steward at LKAB mine in Kiruna, and one of the members who lifted a car. “Imagine what more members can do together!” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1011.if metall campaign.png" width="141" height="146"/>
The campaign will be continued until the IF Metall Congress in June 2011. See videos of the events and further information on the campaign <a href="http://www.ifmetall.se/ifmetall/home/home.nsf/LUUnique/CADBBFCAB43A8C90C12577E000299F9D?OpenDocument">here</a>.  
 
The first group of IF Metall members to be the focus of the action was the 14,500-strong health and safety representatives. Those representatives conducted a hazard investigation before the lift.

IF Metall Campaign 'Stronger Together'

By a vote of 521 to 398 on 6 December, members of Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi voted to end a 32-day strike against the world’s third largest copper miner, located in Chile. The Union of Workers of the Collahuasi Copper Mine and Doña Ines de Collahuasi, owned jointly through 44% stakes each by AngloAmerican and Xstrata, resumed talks early last week with help from Roman Catholic Prelate Marco Antonio Órdenes, Bishop of Iquique. 
 
The union's Second Director, Carlos Daniel Rojas, told the ICEM early today that Bishop Órdenes succeeded "in opening the door" with the company when there appeared little hope that talks would resume, and the union took it from there to work out a settlement. 
 
The final resolve came in negotiations over the weekend and early Monday, 6 December, with an acceptable compromise. 
 
The vote Monday night ends the longest private-sector Chilean copper strike, surpassing one of 26 days in 2006 at the Escondida mine, owned 57.5% by BHP Billiton and 30% by Rio Tinto. 
 
Terms of the settlement will give the 1,551 miners of Collahuasi a wage increase of 16.3% over a 42-month period, and a bonus payment of 14 million pesos (US$28,733). Other key issues in the strike, which began on 5 November, were company-paid health care and education costs for miners’ children. The union did make advances in both these areas from prior levels paid by the company. 
 
The strike was marked by a united workforce led by President Manuel Muñoz and Second Director Rojas. The miners of Collahuasi took up residency in the Santa María School in Iquique, and staged peaceful and near-daily manifestations in that city. Those demonstrations were strategic in order to draw attention to their cause of gaining adequate health coverage and educational stipends from an employer that posted net profits in 2009 of US$1.56 billion due to high copper pricing. 
 
Last night’s vote took place inside the Santa María School. Collahuasi miners were scheduled to return to work high in the Atacama desert of Chile’s northern Region I, some 285 kilometres from the port city of Iquique, today, 7 December. 
 
"The Collahuasi miners and their families showed strength and fortitude in a dignified and peaceful way against an enterprise intent on maintaining production and turning profits," said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. "For that, they have earned the pride and admiration of the world's mining unions." 
 
Coverage of this heroic strike, taken from the ICEM website, can be found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4117-Chile’s-Collahuasi-Copper-Strike-Now-in-Crucial-Stage" type="internal">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4102-Miners-Dig-In-at-Chile’s-Collahuasi-Copper-Strike" type="internal">here</a>.

Strike Ends at Collahuasi Copper Mine in Chile

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="110" height="50"/>
A sit-in strike by contract workers at the Hyundai Motor factory in Ulsan, South Gyeongsang, South Korea, which at times turned violent, ended on 9 December. The 25-day strike ended when three unions, including one representing the contract workers, met and agreed to halt the strike on condition that management would negotiate in good-faith to make the workers full-time Hyundai staff. The strike and blockade of production was over the auto manufacturer’s refusal to grant permanent work status, in accord with a July Korean Supreme Court decision. (See related story <a href="/index.php?id=73&la=EN&doc=4149" type="internal">here</a>.) 
 
The workers, some 550 in total who are members of the Hyundai Motors Irregular Workers’ Union, began sit-in actions at Ulsan on 15 November and are demanding an end to discrimination in wages and job conditions. The militant strike action was started by some 30 workers after Hyundai sought to replace a terminated seat-assembly subcontracting company called Dongsung with another, and insisted that the contract workers sign individual contracts with the new company. 
 
In the weeks prior, some 1,900 contract workers at Hyundai, buoyed by the 22 July Supreme Court decision stating they must be made permanent and direct workers of the car producer after two years employment, joined the Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU). With the change in subcontractors, Hyundai also attempted to coerce the workers to withdraw from the KMWU. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1012.CAL Korea Hyundai Motor.jpg" width="250" height="160"/>
The strike had been met by the use of beatings and tear gas by local police brought in by the world’s fifth largest car-maker. At the outset on 15 November, Hyundai managers attacked the sit-down strikers with heavy metal fittings and iron frames. Scores of contract workers have been arrested, and the company has filed both criminal and civil lawsuits against the strikers, including a civil one against 419 strikers seeking 16.2 billion (US$14.1 million) for lost production. One contract worker attempted to set himself on fire during a plant gate rally on 20 November. 
 
At times, three assembly lines had been blockaded by angry contract workers, costing Hyundai some 24,000 units of production. As of early last week, contract workers were occupying one line at Ulsan, the world’s largest integrated automobile manufacturing facility, thus cutting production of the company’s newly-unveiled Accent model, as well as Click and Verna subcompact models. 
 
Union leaders at Ulsan had been seeking dialogue with Hyundai Motor management in order to resolve the ever-growing number of issues, but reportedly senior management would not meet until the strike actions cease. 
 
The strike by contract workers did catch the attention of autoworkers throughout the world. On 6 December, the American United Auto Workers’ (UAW) Union held a manifestation attended by 150 people at the Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center in the US state of Michigan in support of the Korean autoworkers.

25-Day Sit-In Strike by Hyundai’s Contract Workers Ends 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/en-header.jpg" width="160" height="49"/>
In a powerful display of international solidarity, trade unions in over 40 countries on five continents took action demanding trade union rights in Mexico from February 14-19, 2011. Unions from around the globe came together holding actions, writing letters and taking meetings with Mexican ambassadors and political figures to highlight massive labour rights violations in Mexico. Everywhere the message to the Mexican government was the same: 
• Hold employer and government officials accountable for the Pasta de Conchos mine explosion that killed 65 miners on February 19, 2006. 
• Abolish systemic violations of workers' freedom of association, including employer-dominated "protection contracts" and interference in union elections. 
• End the use of force-by the state or private parties-to repress workers' legitimate demands for democratic unions, better wages and working conditions, and good health and safety conditions. 
• End the campaign of political persecution against the Mexican Miners' Union (Los Mineros) and the Mexican Electrical Workers' Union (SME). 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.Mexico_MexAct.jpg" width="334" height="188"/>
Mexico City
In <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=25486&l=2">Mexico</a> itself each day of action was marked with the independent labour movement conducting over 27 actions throughout the country, including visits to embassies of 23 countries, a march and demonstration in Mexico City, seminars and a protest rally at the Monument of the Revolution. The leaders of Los Mineros and SME signed a pact of national unity. 
 
In <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=25465&l=2">Canada</a>, high-level trade union delegations met with Mexican ambassadors and consuls in four cities, while pickets continued outside. In six cities across the US, rallies, meetings with ambassadors and consuls, and pickets, sent the clear message to the Mexican Calderón government that pressure is building inside the country’s largest trading partner that labour rights abuses must end. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.Washington_MexAct.jpg" width="285" height="187"/>
Washington DC
Elsewhere more than 50 meetings with embassy representatives or policymakers took place, shining a light on Mexico's refusal to honour its international commitments to respect Freedom of Association. In <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4238-Mexico-Days-of-Action-Begin" type="internal">Switzerland</a>, the office of the Ambassador to the United Nations was targeted by a rally and other significant actions took place in <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=25463&l=2">Australia</a>, <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=25469&l=2">Belgium</a>, <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=25476&l=2">Brazil</a>, <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=25528&l=2">France</a>, <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=25548&l=2">India</a>, <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=25552&l=2">Indonesia</a>, <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=25713&l=2">Italy</a>, <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=25590&l=2">Japan</a>, <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=25544&l=2">New Zealand</a>, <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=25513&l=2">Russia</a>, <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=25608&l=2">South Africa</a>, and <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=25492&l=2">Spain</a>. 
 
These actions were key as the Committee on Freedom of Association met in the first week of March at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to discuss three significant complaints filed against Mexico, two regarding union autonomy and the other regarding "protection contracts". 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.Russia_MexAct.jpg" width="285" height="189"/>
Moscow
You can still join the <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=863">campaign through LabourStart</a> by sending a message to Calderón. More than 3,500 messages were sent via the campaign in the first week, and the numbers are growing every day. 
 
The action in support of the democratic and independent trade unions in Mexico was initiated by unions from around the world affiliated to the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), UNI Global Union, and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). 
 
In addition, the International Textile, Garment, & Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) called for <a href="http://www.itglwf.org/lang/en/ITGLWFCallsforFundamentalRightsintheMexicanGarmentSector.html ">fundamental rights in the Mexican garment sector</a>, where “protection contracts” deny workers of their basic labour rights, as is the case throughout Mexico. 
 
<a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/mexico2011 ">Click here for more information</a>.

Unions Join Forces to Demand Trade Union Rights in Mexico

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/en-header.jpg" width="160" height="49"/>
More and more employers are moving away from permanent, direct employment in favour of contract, agency or other forms of precarious work. In response to surveys carried out in 2009 and 2010, 66 per cent of ICEM, IMF and ITGLWF affiliates indicated that precarious work had increased in their sector over the last year alone. 
 
Recognising the fact that precarious work was a growing problem in almost every sector, the Global Unions established the Work Relationships Group (WRG) in 2007, with a view to carrying out joint work on the issue. Since then, the group has met ten times and taken joint positions and engaged in a number of joint activities related to precarious work. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda is chairman of the WRG. 
 
A significant step was made last June, when all Global Union Federations agreed a set of Joint Principles on Temporary Agency Work. While acknowledging that there are many different views and approaches within the trade union movement towards dealing with precarious work, the joint principles set out the points which all of the Global Unions agree on. 
 
These include that the primary form of employment should be permanent, open-ended and direct; that agency workers should be covered under the same collective bargaining agreement as other workers in the user enterprise and should receive equal treatment in all respects; that the use of temporary agencies should not increase the gender gap on wages, social protections, and conditions; that temporary work agencies must not be used to eliminate permanent and direct employment relationships; and that the use of agency workers should never be used to weaken trade unions or to undermine organising or collective bargaining rights. 
 
One primary function of the WRG is to facilitate the exchange of information between the Global Unions, and to identify areas where joint action might be appropriate. One such action took place in October 2009, when the General Secretaries of ICEM, IMF, and ITGLWF met with the Turkish Labour Minister, and expressed their support for President Abdullah Gül’s veto of proposed amendments that would have permitted the charging of fees by labour brokers and permitted businesses or individuals to easily become certified as labour agencies. 
 
Since its inception, the WRG has been calling on the International Labour Organization (ILO) to take concrete steps to address the growth of precarious work. Our demands have included that the ILO must equip itself to address the many circumstances under which workers engaged in precarious work are denied the effective right to organize and bargain collectively. 
 
The ILO/ACTRAV Symposium 2011, which takes places in Geneva from October 3-7, will focus on precarious work. Among other topics, the Symposium will look at how different elements of precarious work, including triangular employment relationships and subcontracting, impact workers and their right to bargain collectively.

Global Unions Join Forces to Fight Precarious Work

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/en-header.jpg" width="160" height="49"/>
Eighty years ago, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned of its dangers. In the 1960s, EU member states regulated or banned it. In 2009, it was outlawed in Turkey. Yet in today’s global fashion industry, sandblasting remains the method of choice for giving jeans a trendy faded look. 
 
The process of sandblasting releases silicia dust which, when inhaled, causes infection and scarring in the lungs. Continued exposure can causes silicosis, an incurable disease that worsens over time even after exposure stops. 
 
As a result of long working hours in cramped unventilated areas with little or no protection, workers in the denim industry contract silicosis much more quickly than workers in other sectors, often after four or five years of exposure, and in some cases after as little as twelve months. 
 
Around five billion pairs of jeans are produced every year and a growing and very profitable segment of the market is for faded or “distressed” jeans. In Turkey, the world’s third largest exporter of jeans and the only country so far where the effects of sandblasting have come under scrutiny, 550 former sandblasting workers have been diagnosed with silicosis since 2005 and 46 have so far died of the disease. These officially-documented cases are just the tip of the iceberg both in Turkey and globally. 
 
In April 2009, following a campaign led by workers, their unions, doctors and civil organisations, sandblasting was banned in Turkey. Following the ban, however, sandblasting was relocated to other countries. 
 
The ITGLWF is calling on its affiliates to take the lead in investigating the use of sandblasting in their respective countries. Where it exists, they should campaign to eliminate the practice and exert pressure to ensure that past and present workers are tested and that those affected receive adequate medical care as well as compensation. Workers should be made aware of the dangers and of the need for strong union organization, as well as meaningful worker participation in factory safety programmes to protect them from such abuses. 
 
Governments in producing countries should outlaw the process or enforce existing bans and those in consuming countries should ban the import of sandblasted jeans. And the ILO and the WTO should be called upon to intervene to help impose a global ban. 
 
However, in the absence of effective government regulation brands and retailers urgently need to take voluntary action. Even if brands and retailers adopt rigorous standards regarding sandblasting, there will always be suppliers that do not enforce those standards, thus putting unsuspecting workers at risk. Therefore the best policy is to ban sandblasting altogether in the garment industry. 
 
In January, the ITGLWF convened a meeting of jeans’ brands and retailers to raise awareness of the need to eliminate the use of sandblasting. 
 
Says ITGLWF General Secretary Patrick Itschert: “The initial meeting was very positive. It was clear that participating companies were committed to moving forward. Joint efforts are now underway to draft a protocol on the elimination of sandblasting to be tabled at a follow-up meeting within the next couple of months, as well as to invite more brands to become involved in the process. 
 
“Sandblasting is an issue that puts the morality of the fashion world to the test and unions must not rest until the process has been effectively eliminated,” he concluded.

Sandblasting: the Human Cost of Fashion

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Trade unions in Tunisia played a central role in the social uprising that last week toppled the autocratic and corrupt rule of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali after 24 years in power. The General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT), an affiliate of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), conducted a two-hour general strike on Friday, 14 January, in protest of the government’s violent suppression of the uprising. 
 
Tunisian citizens refused continuance of a 24% rate of unemployment, corruption, growing inequality, and limited access to the political process. 
 
With over 60 protesters killed in two weeks of clashes with the police, unions are demanding justice for the killers of the protestors. Throughout the clashes, the UGTT headquarters were repeatedly blockaded by police, who then stormed and ransacked the union’s offices on 12 January. 
 
Reacting to the events, the National Commission of the UGTT held an extraordinary session on 11 January and called for public investment, improvement in the basic needs of the people, and a rebalancing of regional inequalities. A further important demand was for the establishment of an unemployment fund, which would provide a badly-needed social safety net for workers who lose their job. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101.tunisia clashes.jpg" width="198" height="149"/>
Further, trade unions articulated the demand for democracy and freedom of the press. Privatisation of public services over recent years had increased the above stated unemployment level, which is now double for the country’s youth. 
 
The violence used to suppress the Tunisians right to peaceful protest attracted condemnation from trade unions around the world, as well as from governments. The Sarkozy administration of France, however, attempted to help President Ben Ali retain power in the former colony, by providing additional military equipment. 
 
Speaker of the Parliament, Foued Mebazaa, was sworn in as interim president on Saturday, 15 January. He must now work together with social partners to find solutions to the inequality, unemployment, and corruption in Tunisia, ensuring that trade unions can operate freely and safely. 
 
Similar social problems are being protested in Algeria, bordering Tunisia to the West, where riots in seven cities have lead to five deaths, and over 1,000 arrests. European countries have increasingly closed their borders to North Africans looking for work, exacerbating the problems.

Tunisian ‘Jasmine Revolution’ Ousts Autocrat; Unions Call for Social Justice

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