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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ten-day strike by union members of Sindicato No. 1 Escondida of Chile’s Federation of Miners (FMC) at the world’s largest copper mine has galvanized mining unions in the South American country. In unprecedented solidarity, mineworkers’ unions of the private-sector FMC and at state-run Codelco, the Federation of Workers of Cobre (FTC), are uniting to proclaim a larger portion of the world’s copper profits must remain in national hands. 
 
That message was made clear last Thursday, 28 July, when leaders of both federations met in Antofagasta in northern Region II to discuss how companies circumvent labour laws and collective agreement conventions at the expense of mineworkers, and how natural resources are exploited to the detriment of Chile’s national character. Outside the trade union meeting, rank-and-file workers marched and demanded re-nationalisation of copper mining. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.chile miners - use this one as replacement.jpg" width="237" height="164"/>
28 July manifestation in Antofagasta
That may seem improbable, but one thing is not: soaring pricing on copper concentrates and copper cathodes and the ever-growing profit margins of multinationals that mine and trade the red metal worldwide has created a “Together We Can” mentality. Chile’s mineworkers are now saying that unified industrial action can affect the country’s future for the better. 
 
Consider that on a single day – 30 July – 10% of the world’s copper production stopped when 1,500 FMC miners at Doña Inés Collahuasi (AngloAmerican and Xstrata) joined 2,400 miners of FMC Sindicato No. 1 at Minera Escondida Ltd. (BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto). Although grievances reflected separate sets of negligent circumstances at the two mining complexes, the unity of purpose was evident. 
 
The bosses have declared both strikes illegal because the walkouts occurred during running collective agreements. But when companies abrogate terms of those contracts – or refuse dialogue on health and safety or other concerns – what choice is there? Sindicato No. 1 has taken Escondida Ltd’s breaches to labour court to disprove the illegality of its strike. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Christian Arancibia - Chile FMC.jpg" width="128" height="159"/>
Cristián Arancibia
FMC President Cristián Arancibia said that workers are hearing a national calling, that unions of his federation feel a responsibility to the people and communities of mining regions. He said agreement has been reached with the FTC that mineworkers will not be “accomplices to Chile’s resources sold away for foreign investment.” That includes FMC recognition that Codelco is chipping away at FTC’s membership in order to partially privatise the world’s largest copper company. 
 
The FTC’s Cristian Cuevas, in turn, demanded that Escondida Ltd. stop persecuting workers by failing to fulfil the terms of the 2009-2013 collective agreement and disrespecting international labour conventions. He also warned that if BHP Billiton sacked striking Sindicato No. 1 members and replaces them with scabs, the wrath of all Chilean mineworkers will be heard. 
 
The ten-day strike by FMC Sindicato No. 1 at Escondida is portrayed as a difference in a one-off production bonus between the union and management. In fact, it is over dramatic reductions in agreed-upon production bonuses that were reduced three-fold this past spring while multinationals, BHP Billiton (57.5%) and Rio Tinto (30%), were reaping huge profits from a mining enterprise that accounts for 7% of the world’s copper supply. 
 
At Collahuasi, the 24-hour walkout on 30 July – only eight months after a bitter 33-day strike – was over the company negotiating individually with workers outside the collective agreement. It was also brought about by an unresolved health issue from that November-December 2010 strike. The mine is located 4,000 metres high in the Atacama Desert of the Andes where oxygen levels are low and worker body stress is high. Anglo American and Xstrata have a US$750 million expansion underway that will nearly double production. The new open-cast mining area is at even higher altitudes, up to 5,000 metres. The FMC affiliate, Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi, seeks dialogue to address the obvious and adverse health affects.

‘Together We Can’ …. Chile’s Copper Miners Unite for National Gain

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Swiss union UNIA is mobilising its forces in defence of 560 jobs at Swissmetal, as the company moves dangerously close to bankruptcy. Some 150 Swissmetal staff in Dornach in north-western Switzerland assembled in the factory car park on 21 July in a sombre demonstration, demanding that production continues after the two-week scheduled holiday break. Resumption of all work activities should occur 8 August. 
 
Workers at the plant are refusing to halt production, in the knowledge that it would result in mass redundancies. UNIA and local staff have proposed a raft of alternative measures to improve efficiency, which would ensure profitability for Swissmetal. 
 
Pending a solution, local management must not issue redundancies or dismantle production equipment, as operations may still be purchased by another company. One prospective buyer is France-based Le Bronze Industriel. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.swissmetal unia.jpg" width="216" height="161" alt=""/>
Other union demands include for management to provide fully transparent financial documentation of the company, and a joint review of union proposals on efficiency improvements. A period of consultation has been extended to 19 August. 
 
UNIA is calling on the Canton of Soleure to mobilise its powers to safeguard the jobs. It is the same Canton where pulp and paper multinational Sappi last spring announced closure of its Biberist graphic papers mill, in a brutal loss of 341 jobs. Despite UNIA and Sappi European Works Council (EWC) efforts to find a buyer for the Sappi mill, the South African company recently said those efforts have failed and the mill would close. 
 
Swissmetal manufactures high-quality copper products, mainly used in the electronics, telecommunications, aviation, petroleum, and automotive industries. Based in Dornach, ten kilometres south of Basel, the company’s other foundry in Switzerland is in Reconvilier, where another 560 jobs are at risk.

UNIA Continues Fight to Keep Swissmetal Jobs 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Three separate mine tragedies last week caused the deaths of 36 miners in eastern Ukraine, with the death toll likely to climb with rescue efforts still incomplete and some miners in life-threatening conditions in hospitals. The worst occurred in the early morning hours of Friday, 29 July, when a methane gas explosion in a Metinvest B.V. coal mine in Lugansk Region killed 18. Eight miners are still missing. 
 
On the same day, hours later and in adjoining Donetsk Region, seven miners were instantly killed when a headframe at the state-owned Bazhanova mine near Makiyivka collapsed. The collapse sent an elevator hurling downward, killing the seven. Another three miners are unaccounted for and four were rescued and are hospitalised in serious condition. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.ukraine mine accident.jpg" width="329" height="161" alt=""/>
Families of the lost miners
The third tragedy occurred in another state-run mine in the Donbass of Donetsk Region on 26 July. Three miners are dead, another three are missing and feared dead when a roof collapsed 520 metres underground at the Rodynska colliery. 
 
The Metinvest gas blast at the former state-owned Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya coal mine near Krasnodon, Lugansk, happened at a depth of 915 metres and stands as Ukraine’s worst mine tragedy since 101 miners were killed in a series of explosions in November 2007 at the privately-held Zasyadko company mine in the Donbass. 
 
Demitry Kalitventsev, the branch leader of the Ukrainian Coal Industry Workers’ Union (PRUP) in Lugansk, feared the death toll could exceed 30 because another nine miners who were rescued have extreme burns and their conditions are not good. It’s been reported that the mine had modern safety equipment and detection devices, but consistently languished under high gas methane readings. 
 
Families of the victims are to receive UAH 1 million (US$125,000), it was reported. Metinvest is 75% owned by Rinat Akhmetov’s System Capital Management Group (SCM) and 25% by Smart Holding Group. Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest individual, is a Party of Regions bankroller and a member of Ukraine’s Parliament, the Rada. Metinvest of late has grown into one of Ukraine’s largest steel producers with a number of acquisitions. Smart Holding has major interests in shipbuilding, construction, port management, and metallurgy and mining.

Three Coal Mine Accidents Kill at Least 36 in Ukraine

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
A common pattern of union-busting in Turkey is being conducted against ICEM-affiliated Belediye-İş in Istanbul, and two international federations and a European union federation are calling for action by Turkey’s new Minister of Labour and Social Security, Faruk Çelik. 
 
Metropolitan municipality workers in Istanbul have been pressured to rescind their membership in Belediye-İş, the Municipal and General Workers’ Union of Turkey, and to instead join a different “trade union” preferred by management. In a 26 July joint letter, the General Secretaries of ICEM, Public Services International (PSI), and the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), united in condemning treatment of workers solidly aligned with Belediye-İş, an affiliate of all three federations. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.belediye is.jpg" width="250" height="160" alt=""/>
Threats and intimidation exerted on workers by managers of the Metro Istanbul government have forced a number of workers to quit the union. Now, as many of them return to Belediye-İş, workers are being punished with forced relocation to other jobs elsewhere inside the municipality. This is especially the case for municipality employees in parks, gardens, social facilities, and municipal police services. 
 
The ICEM, PSI, and EPSU reminded Labour Minister Çelik of the Turkish government’s responsibilities in protecting freedom of association, the right to organise with the union of their choice, and to bargain collectively with that union, as stipulated under the Turkish Constitution and Core ILO Conventions. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.Belediye Is President.jpg" width="192" height="144" alt=""/>
Belediye-İş President Nihat Yurdakul
“Under these circumstances, we urge you to use your authority over the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality to stop all the methods and means used against Belediye-İş members to resign their membership,” the letter states.

ICEM, Public Sector Unions Call on Turkey’s Labour Minister to Intervene in Istanbul

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="120" height="59"/>
By the narrowest of margins on 2 August, members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669 in Metropolis, Illinois, ratified a three-year labour agreement with Honeywell, Inc., officially ending a lockout that began on 28 June 2010. The ratification vote came a full 13 days following conclusion of a negotiating settlement (see <a href="/en/3-Energy-Oil-and-Gas/4564-USW-Union-at-Honeywell-Reaches-Tentative-Labour-Agreement" type="internal">ICEM 22 July report</a>), primarily because Honeywell managers at the uranium converting facility were negligent in giving explicit back-to-work assignments to locked-out workers. 

The 228 steelworkers at Honeywell convert milled uranium, known as yellow-cake uranium, into uranium hexafluoride (UF6) which is used in nuclear fuel enrichment. The lock-out was marked by Honeywell’s decision to resume full production nine weeks into the company’ s work stoppage and then re-start operations with inexperienced scab replacement workers. Twice in the months that followed, the plant saw near-miss tragedies due to mishandling of dangerous chemicals. 

The period between the 20 July 2011 tentative agreement and yesterday’s ratification was just as contentious as was the entire lockout. Honeywell managers told Local 7-699 that it wanted experienced workers to return to the jobs they knew best, but then submitted a back-to-work roster which saw job postings many of the locked-out workers had never worked before. 

It took Local 7-669 leaders enormous time and effort in the 13-day interval to sort out the return-to-work roster. Meanwhile, Honeywell managers publicly denounced the union for not conducting the ratification vote. “They were trying to force a vote before our people knew exactly which job they would return to,” said local union spokesman John Smith.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.honeywell safety matters.jpg" width="131" height="214"/>
Local 7-669 members will begin returning to work on 15 August. Some 150 workers will return then to training and re-certification by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Forty workers will return two weeks later for the same, and the remainder two weeks after that. The unionised workforce will number about 220 workers when the experienced and qualified USW members are fully back to work. 

The negotiated settlement preserves most of the key union-protection provisions that Honeywell was trying to strip away at the start of the lockout, including seniority, job bidding, overtime, and retention of a defined benefit pension plan for existing workers, as well as retiree medical benefits that go along with that plan. 

On wages, the new three-year collective agreement calls for no increase in the first year, 1% effective 15 August 2012, and 2% on 15 August 2013. Local 7-669 proposed in bargaining over a year ago a freeze on wages and continuation of all terms and conditions of a prior three-year contract. But Honeywell seemed intent on taking away pension, the accompanying health care benefits, as well as union-protection provisions. 

Honeywell abandoned most of those contract concessions, perhaps realising that it needed experienced steelworkers to effectively operate the plant safety and productively. Production had plummeted to a reported 35% of pre-lockout levels and Honeywell was not meeting it order demand for UF6. 

USW Local 7-669 President Darrell Lillie told the ICEM: “We’re highly appreciative of the tremendous support we have received from trade unions, those in the community and others throughout this long lockout. The donations, the international support, and the recognition by many here and abroad on what we were up against will never be forgotten.”

Troubled to End, USW Union Ratifies US Honeywell Contract

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
ICEM and the Building & Wood Workers’ International (BWI) are actively continuing the campaign of the Indian Cement Workers Federation (INCWF) for equal rights, better conditions, and higher salaries for contract workers at Swiss-based cement multinational Holcim. Union busting and police harassment were increased at Holcim-India over the last two weeks, and a worker rally at the Labour Ministry was organized in response. 
 
The renewed worker anger was sparked by an incident on 19 May with the arrest Bhagwati Sahu, who was falsely accused of stealing Rs. 3,500 and a mobile phone. Brother Sahu is a trade union organizer for contract workers at the Holcim-Ambuja plant in Rawaan. 
 
Claims of police complicity with the company were compounded when the local police opposed bail and spuriously calling Sahu a “habitual offender, dangerous, and a threat to law and order.” Numerous witnesses came forward to testify that Bhagwati was elsewhere at the time of the incident. Lakhan Sahu, a fellow union activist, was also charged with the same crime. He was attending a family funeral in Raipur, a one-day drive south of Rawaan. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="146" height="66"/>
The fake charges, intended to break the union organising of contractors at Holcim, also targeted six other union activists. 
 
Join the <a href="http://www.bwint.org/default.asp?Index=3442&Language=EN">campaign</a> yourself by sending a message to the Holcim CEO via the BWI website here. 
 
INCWF, an affiliate of both the ICEM and BWI, has conducted a long-running campaign calling for equal rights for contract workers, as stipulated under Indian law. Holcim-India continuously neglects this legislation, specifically at its subsidiaries of ACC in Bhilai and Ambuja Cement in Baloda Bazar. 
 
On 26 May, 250 contract workers reached Raipur to meet the Labour Ministry and Labour Secretary to demand the implementation of the High Court order directing regularization, and the withdrawal of the false cases against their union leaders. Both the minister and secretary avoided meeting the workers though their subordinates made “assurances” of looking into the workers’ grievances. 
 
The BWI, ICEM, and Swiss trade union UNIA are planning to send a delegation to India to investigate the grievances. 
 
Holcim is the second largest producer of cement in the world. An average salary for Indian contract workers of US$2.17 a day and India’s large quantities of limestone are reasons why Holcim has shifted production to the Asian sub-continent from countries such as Spain and the US.

Holcim, India’s Police Team to Resist Contract Worker Organising

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM Presidium on 23 May endorsed the appointment of Kemal Özkan as new Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs effective 1 June. He picks up the new role in addition to his current duties of Chemical and Rubber Industries’ Officer, a position he has held since coming to the ICEM early in 2007. 
 
As an engineer with a master’s degree in economics and business administration, Özkan worked at ICEM’s Turkish affiliate Petroleum, Chemical and Rubber Workers’ Union for some 15 years before joining the ICEM. Coming from a family of trade unionists, Özkan’s father was imprisoned for four years for union activity during the military coup d’état in Turkey in 1980. 
 
“I am honoured to be named as new Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs of ICEM,” said Özkan. “It gives me more responsibility to ensure the success of our organization. I will continue to do my best efforts to reinforce ICEM activities in the sectors and in industrial relations.” 
 
Added General Secretary Manfred Warda, “Kemal Özkan is a worthy person for this position with his knowledge, success, and activism. He has always shown his preparedness for taking further responsibility at the ICEM. I am sure with his new assignment he will again demonstrate his readiness to carry our flag into the future.” 
 
Özkan is 42 years old and married to Selma Basak.

Özkan Named ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
ICEM’s Swiss affiliate, UNIA, is playing a central role in organising a national day of action and strike on 14 June calling for equal rights for women workers. Hundreds of activities will be held marking the protest, expected to include 100,000 people from over 45 organisations. 
 
Events in each of Switzerland’s main cities will educate and agitate around the issues of the gender gap in wages and in national legislation. Public administration buildings and main landmarks will be coloured with purple, including Geneva’s water jet fountain, the jet d’eau. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.women day swiss.2.jpg" width="241" height="161" alt=""/>
In Switzerland, women earn on average 19.8% less than men in performing the same job. Nurses are especially low paid, in relation to men performing similar roles, and the Swiss Nurses Union will be actively involved in the 14 June protest. 
 
Not only are women paid less than men in Switzerland, but they take on twice the amount of un-paid work, with a much higher challenge than men to coordinate family and professional life. Many women see their careers halted by family requirements. And an extremely low proportion of top-level managers in Switzerland are women, leading many in the movement to call for quotas enforced by law. 
 
Next week on 14 June marks 30 years since equality of the sexes was enshrined in Swiss law, and 20 years since the first women’s strike in the country. The date also coincides with the expected adoption of an ILO Convention for Domestic Workers’ Rights, arguably the most precarious and lowest-paid work sector.

Swiss Women Set 14 June as ‘Equality Now’ Day

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="160" height="78"/>
Addressing the Plenary sitting of the 100th session of the International Labour Conference today, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda called for action on precarious work, workers' health and safety in the mining industry, and attention to the violation of rights of Holcim employees in India, as well as on abuses to glass workers in Mexico. 
 
Warda condemned the shocking attempt by Swiss-based cement multinational Holcim to crush the union representing its employees in India, with unsubstantiated claims leading to the 19 May arrest of union leaders engaged during a legal battle for the reinstatement of 80 members illegally sacked at the Holcim-ACC unit at Jamul.
Referring to the recent attempt of those outsourced workers to voice their concerns to the authorities, Warda continued, “It is deplorable that Mr. Chandrashekhar Sahu, the Labor Minister of the State of Chhattisgarth of India, attending this Conference, refused to meet 250 Holcim workers who had walked long distances to appeal to him for observation of basic trade union rights.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.manfred ilo.2.JPG" width="327" height="160"/>
Warda called on governments and employers to move towards ratification and implementation of ILO Convention 176 and its associated Recommendation 183, on safety and health in mines. With Ukraine soon to become the 25th country to ratify the Convention, this represents far too few adoptions, while miners are continuing to be killed and injured every day around the world. 
 
Finally, Warda focussed on the ILO complaint No. 2774 by Mexican affiliated union SUTEIVP. The complaint is being fully supported by the ICEM, following a 2008 mass dismissal of hundreds of workers at Industria Vidriera del Potosi S.A., a manufacturer of glass bottles used by Corona beer. The sacked workers were covered by a collective bargaining agreement and included the executive committee of the SUTEIVP at the plant. A protection contract was then established by the employer. 
 
See the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEM_Manfred_Warda_ILC_Plenary_Speech%20_8_June%20FINAL.pdf" type="internal">full text of the speech</a> here.

ICEM General Secretary Addresses International Labour Conference

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The ICEM today expressed sadness and anger at the deaths of two members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6500 in Sudbury, Ontario, on Wednesday night, 8 June. The two miners died 900 metres underground at Vale’s Stobie nickel and copper mine when an overflow of broken rock, sediment, and water – known as muck – buried them. 
 
The miners were identified yesterday as Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26. The two men were operating a scooptram at the No. 7 ore pass inside Stobie. An ore pass is a junction where ore is dropped from one level to the next. Sixty miners were working in the mine on the night shift when the fatalities occurred. 
 
In a letter today to USW President Leo Gerard, himself a former mineworker in Sudbury, USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann, and USW Local 6500 President Rick Bertrand, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda stated: “It is a terrible tragedy and makes clear the inherent dangers for workers whose livelihoods are dependent on the mining industry. Please convey the sympathies of the entire ICEM global family of unions to the families of the two miners, as well as to all union members of Local 6500.” (See the full <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/54.ICEM.USW.Sudbury%20Deaths.Canada.10June.pdf" type="internal">ICEM letter</a> here.) 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.sudbury, stobie mine site.jpg" width="144" height="168"/>
Vale’s Stobie nickel and copper mine
The ICEM also noted that USW’s expert team of safety and health investigators will probe the tragic circumstances to uncover what went wrong and to ensure a similar tragedy does not happen again. The ICEM stated the sad irony of the 8 June is that only eight days before the miners’ deaths, Vale was honoured with an award by the Canadian Institute of Mining as having the safest two metal mines in Canada. 
 
Although the mines receiving the award were at Vale’s nickel operations in Thompson, Manitoba, mines from Sudbury won the same award consecutively from 2006 to 2009. 
 
In a statement, Local 6500 President Bertrand said, “The Steelworkers will be involved in this investigation every step of the way. Once the investigation is complete we will work hard for the workplace to be restored to safe condition before it starts up again.” 
 
The Stobie mine in Sudbury consists of two adjoining mines, an open cast one and an underground one where the tragedy occurred. Canada has not ratified ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention.

ICEM Saddened by Mine Deaths of Two Steelworkers at Vale in Sudbury, Canada

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