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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="120" height="59"/>
The ICEM has responded with anger and outrage over the latest cold-blooded murder of a trade unionist in Colombia. Mauricio Redondo, 36, and his wife, Janeth Ordóñez Carlosama, were murdered in their home in the village of Teteyé, in the southern department of Putumayo, on 17 January at 19h30 by two gunmen. 
 
Mauricio Redondo was a provincial leader of ICEM Colombia affiliate Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) and both he and his wife were activists in a community group that advocated for better working conditions, environmental stewardship, and labour and human rights in the booming oil and natural gas fields of the Putumayo basin in southwest Colombia.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1201.uso assassination.from uso website.jpg" width="240" height="141"/>
In fact, four days before the killings, a meeting in the municipality of Orito, at a forum called Primer Foro Petrolero por el Derecho al Trabajo, la Reivindicación Social y Económica de Orito, Redondo was an active speaker in talks to open public protests over these issues. According to initial reports, the two gunmen were wearing work uniforms of the local oil contracting company Empresa de Energía del Bajo Putumayo, EEEP (Energy Company of Lower Putumayo) and fired multiple gunshots into the couple. Redondo and Ordóñez are survived by five young children. 
 
“Once again we witness the price that dedicated trade unionists in Colombia pay when they attempt to stand up for a dignified way of life,” said General Secretary Manfred Warda, who was in Colombia when the murders happened. 
 
“Along with USO, we mourn the grisly deaths of Mauricio Redondo and Janeth Ordóñez and we call on Colombia’s federal and provincial prosecution teams to expend all efforts in apprehending and bringing to justice those responsible.” 
 
Mauricio Redondo was employed by Medellin-based P.E.I. Energy, an upstream oil and gas drilling company. He was a leader of the 220-member USO committee in Orito, in which 40% are employees of Ecopetrol and 60% employed by contract companies of the state-held energy company. 
 
The deaths of the couple came just days after three other USO Orito leaders – Manuel Coronado, José Socimo Erazo and Julio Vargas – were threatened by calls made to their mobile telephones. It also came after a bomb threat was directed at the USO regional office in Orito.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/GUN.jpg" width="140" height="105"/>
Said Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) Human Rights Director Alberto Vanegas, the worst aspect of the 17 January heinous crimes are that “five children were left as orphans. This is what we leave with such murders: orphans and widows throughout the country.” 
 
The killings of Mauricio Redondo and Janeth Ordóñez mark the first murders of trade unionists in Colombia in 2012. In 2011, at least 29 trade union leaders were killed in calculated and cold-blooded political assassinations.

ICEM Condemns Assassination of USO Leader, His Wife in Colombia

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
On 1 January, Rio Tinto’s aluminium subsidiary Alcan threw 780 Canadian members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9490 out of work at the Alma smelter and refinery in Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region, Québec. 
 
The callous lockout, as reported here in this <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4837-USW-Affiliate-in-Québec-Locked-Out-by-Rio-Tinto-at-Aluminium-Plant " type="internal">ICEM dispatch</a>, came exactly at contract expiration of a prior five-year labour pact and simultaneously, Rio Tinto did little to hide the fact that because global aluminium prices had slumped, a full 11% of Alcan’s workforce would face layoffs. 
 
Last week, the ICEM and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) lodged a strong complaint with Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese over the assault by lockout on Syndicat des Métallos d’Alma members at this most modern of Alcan’s smelting/refining facilities. That letter can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/3.ICEM-IMFletterRioTintoAlma1.18Jan.pdf " type="internal">here</a>. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1201.alcan photo lapresse.ca.jpg" width="239" height="160"/>
photo: lapresse.ca
Trade union affiliates across the world are now being asked to also send letters to Albanese. We ask you to take the attachment herein, modify appropriately, place on your letterheads, and fax to Rio’s corporate offices in London and Melbourne. 
 
Those fax numbers are +44 20 7781 1800 (London) and +62 3 9283 3707 (Melbourne). Be sure to e-mail this letter as well to the <a href="mailto:info@icem.org ">ICEM</a>, <a href="mailto:unionrights@imfmetal.org ">IMF</a>, and the <a href="mailto:bdavis@usw.org ">USW</a>. As the USW’s global campaign against Rio Tinto for fairness and justice mounts, more and more activity will ensue. 
 
Already, several Canadian trade unions and a few international ones have reached out to the USW and to Local 9490 to offer aid, assistance and support. One notable example came last week when another union representing metalworkers in the region, Le Syndicat National des Employés de l’aluminium d’Arvida (SNEAA), an affiliate of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), presented USW Local 9490 with an interest-free loan of C$1 million. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1201.rio tinto alma.jpg" width="229" height="160"/>
SNEAA President Alain Gagnon and Local 9490 President Mark Maltais
In making the presentation, SNEAA President Alain Gagnon expressed deep concern over Rio Tinto/Alcan’s intransigence in bargaining with fellow Alma metalworkers. 
 
This intransigence is reflected in the single biggest issue in the dispute – the company’s desire to have unlimited contracting out rights. Alcan has substituted the retirement of each full-time, USW-represented worker with a subcontracting employee. Company documentation reveals that the expected ratio of hours worked by subcontractors will go from 10% in 2010 to 27% this year. 
 
When Syndicat des Métallos d’Alma attempted to put a floor on outsourced work, or to put guidelines on addressing subcontract work, Alcan refused to address such issues. And at midnight, 31 December, Rio Tinto/Alcan showed its contempt toward any such dialogue with a lockout. 
 
Make sure your union takes action and registers its protest with Rio Tinto.

ICEM, Metalworkers Urge Action in Rio Tinto Canadian Lockout

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM has responded with anger and outrage over the latest cold-blooded murder of a trade unionist in Colombia. Mauricio Redondo, 36, and his wife, Janeth Ordóñez Carlosama, were murdered in their home in the village of Teteyé, in the southern department of Putumayo, on 17 January at 19h30 by two gunmen. 
 
Mauricio Redondo was a provincial leader of ICEM Colombia affiliate Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) and both he and his wife were activists in a community group that advocated for better working conditions, environmental stewardship, and labour and human rights in the booming oil and natural gas fields of the Putumayo basin in southwest Colombia. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1201.uso%20assassination.from%20uso%20website.jpg" width="240" height="141"/>
In fact, four days before the killings at a meeting in the municipality of Orito, at a forum called Primer Foro Petrolero por el Derecho al Trabajo, la Reivindicación Social y Económica de Orito, Redondo was an active speaker in talks to open public protests over these issues. According to initial reports, the two gunmen were wearing work uniforms of the local oil contracting company Empresa de Energía del Bajo Putumayo, EEEP (Energy Company of Lower Putumayo) and fired multiple gunshots into the couple. Redondo and Ordóñez are survived by five young children. 
 
“Once again we witness the price that dedicated trade unionists in Colombia pay when they attempt to stand up for a dignified way of life,” said General Secretary Manfred Warda, who was in Colombia when the murders happened. 
 
“Along with USO, we mourn the grisly deaths of Mauricio Redondo and Janeth Ordóñez and we call on Colombia’s federal and provincial prosecution teams to extend all efforts in apprehending and bringing to justice those responsible.” 
 
Mauricio Redondo was employed by Medellin-based P.E.I. Energy, an upstream oil and gas drilling company. He was a leader of the 220-member USO committee in Orito, in which 40% are employees of Ecopetrol and 60% employed by contract companies of the state-held energy company. 
 
The deaths of the couple came just days after three other USO Orito leaders – Manuel Coronado, José Socimo Erazo and Julio Vargas – were threatened by calls made to their mobile telephones. It also came after a bomb threat was directed at the USO regional office in Orito. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/GUN.jpg" width="140" height="105"/>
Said Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) Human Rights Director Alberto Vanegas, the worst aspect of the 17 January heinous crimes are that “five children were left as orphans. This is what we leave with such murders: orphans and widows throughout the country.” 
 
The killings of Mauricio Redondo and Janeth Ordóñez mark the first murders of trade unionists in Colombia in 2012. In 2011, at least 29 trade union leaders were killed in calculated and cold-blooded political assassinations.

ICEM Condemns Assassinations of USO Leader, His Wife in Colombia

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Unilever workers at UK factories are midway through 11 days of strikes, as the world’s third largest consumer products company refuses to talk to unions about alternatives to its unacceptable and unilateral decision to close the final salary pension scheme. 
 
Workers organised by three ICEM affiliates, Unite the Union, GMB, and Union of Shop and Distributive Workers (USDAW), calculate that between 20-40% will be slashed from pensions of thousands of staff, at a time when the multinational corporation posted enormous profits of 4.6€ billion in 2010, and awarded CEO Paul Polman a 50% salary increase in a single year. 
 
Well known Unilever brands include PG Tips, Marmite, Pot Noodle, Dove, Comfort, and Surf. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1201.unilever 1.JPG" width="214" height="160" alt=""/>
Unilever was founded on positive social principles but has aggressively followed a strategy of job cuts and outsourcing of over 100,000 of its global workforce over the last ten years, removing any semblance of social responsibility over work terms in the production of food and household goods. 
 
In closing the UK final salary pension scheme, Unilever management once again prioritises profits over staff, and breaks a promise to protect pensions for long-serving workers. The UK unions are fighting back. The first ever strike ever at Unilever in the UK started on 9 December and moved management to cancel Christmas parties and bonuses for its staff. 
 
This second wave of strike actions started at 06h59 on 18 January, with 11 days of rolling strikes throughout the company’s UK production. It runs until midnight, 28 January. 
 
All 7,000 Unilever workers in the UK will see pension earnings hit by this attack as current final scheme members are moved to the inferior Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) scheme from 1 July 2012, and CARE conditions will be decreased across the board. 
 
On 10 January, Unite dispatched its Battle Bus (see <a href="http://union-news.co.uk/2012/01/video-unions-load-up-battlebus-for-unilever-strikes/">Union News video</a>), taking protesting workers from Unite headquarters in Holborn to Unilever’s London office on Victoria Embankment. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1201.unite battle bus.icem flag.JPG" width="221" height="159" alt=""/>
ICEM joined the noisy Battle Bus and protest on the front steps of the firm’s London offices, with the company keeping union leaders from entering. Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey told demonstrators, “How dare a company that generates massive profits attack your pensions, which you have saved for. We are not prepared to stand back and do nothing.” 
 
The current strike action is hitting the following UK plants, with the products they produce: 
• Purfleet – Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Flora 
• Trafford Park – PG Tips tea 
• Burton – Marmite 
• Norwich – Coleman’s mustard and sauces 
• Crumlin, Wales – Pot Noodle 
• Leeds – Dove Deodorant, Lynx, Sure 
• Port Sunlight – fabric – Comfort, Persil 
• Warrington – Persil, Omo 
• Gloucester – Wall’s Ice Cream 
 
The other sites involved in strike action – Unilever UK (Central Resources) Ltd are: 
• Port Sunlight – R&D site 
• St David’s Park (Near Ewloe in Wales) – IT site 
• Colworth, Bedford – R&D site 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1201.unilever%20group.JPG" width="251" height="159" alt=""/>
Unite National Officer, Jennie Formby said, “Unilever needs to clean up its act, get back to the table before it ruins its business’ reputation for good.” 
 
The unions have calculated alternative business options for Unilever to make the same savings without cutting pensions. For more information on the campaign and to <a href="http://www.unitetheunion.org/campaigns/unilever_-_hands_off_our_pensi.aspx">send a message</a> to Unilever CEO Paul Polman, go to the Unite website here.  
 
Watch Unite’s excellent three minute film “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Theeovq1c&feature=youtu.be">Unilever – not as clean as it claims</a>” here.

UK Strikes at Unilever Continue; Company Refuses Talks

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Several European trade unions, led by the European Mine, Chemicals, Energy Federation (EMCEF), are desperately trying to exert public and governmental pressure to keep the continent’s independent petroleum refiner from going totally insolvent. 
 
In late December, a consortium of 13 banks froze a €1 billion credit line on Swiss-based Petroplus, and immediately the oil company shut three of its five refineries – the Petite-Couronne refinery near Rouen, France, an Antwerp, Belgium, facility, and the Cressier refinery in the region of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. 
 
The publicly-listed company also reduced capacity at its Coryton refinery in Stanford-le-Hope, UK, and at Ingolstadt, Germany. At stake, is 2,500 jobs, with roughly half of that number already idle. 
 
EMCEF General Secretary Michael Wolters said there must be “a financial solution to stop Petroplus from going bankrupt and we call on the responsible national and European authorities” to safeguard these workplaces. 
 
But despite getting a temporary revolving credit loan on 11 January to keep Coryton and Ingolstadt partially operating, time is running short. Late last week, the Zug-based company said it was shutting down refinery equipment at Petite-Couronne and Antwerp, making a sale of these facilities and re-start much more difficult and expensive. 
 
The French unions CGT, CFDT, and CFE/CGC have been actively pressing their government to facilitate a sale, and Unite the Union in the UK has engaged with MEP Richard Howitt for Eastern England to find a solution. The Swiss union Unia has petitioned the federal government to intervene by calling for countries with companies exporting refined petroleum to Europe to pay added duties because generally those companies do not adhere to European environmental standards. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/GermanyIGBCE.gif" width="66" height="83"/>    <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SWITZERLANDUnia.gif" width="177" height="69"/>
The ABVV/FGTB and ACV/CSC in Belgium and IGBCE in Germany have also stepped up efforts to save Petroplus refineries in their countries. 
 
Of major concern for workers of Petroplus are imports of refined petroleum markets. But also not to be discounted are the faulty decisions made by senior leaders of the company after the private equity firms Carlyle and Riverstone took the company public in late 2006. Carlyle and Riverstone soon after exited ownership with huge dividends. 
 
And then on the front end of the economic collapse, new management paid a premium to buy Coryton from BP and Ingolstadt from ExxonMobil in 2007, and followed in 2008 with purchase from Shell of the French refineries Petite-Couronne and Reichstett near Strasbourg. Petroplus then shuttered Reichstett in 2009. It also shut a refinery in Teeside, UK, in 2009, as exports to the US dwindled and refining margins dropped. 
 
Since the Petroplus went public in 2006 on the Zurich bourse, the company has lost 98% of its value. The crisis the downstream oil producer is now in stands as a stark reminder of inept managerial decisions during an economic downturn, with workers suffering the ultimate consequences.

European Trade Unions Make Dire Efforts to Keep Petroplus Operating

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="120" height="59" alt=""/>
A 40-day strike in the US state of Massachusetts has ended. Ninety brave members of the ICEM-affiliated Teamsters Union (IBT) backed Saint-Gobain’s CertainTeed subsidiary away from severe cuts to their health care plan, and ratified a five-year labour agreement by a 69-0 vote on 29 January. 
 
The workers, who make asphalt roofing shingles, gypsum wallboard and fiberglass products at a plant outside Boston in Norwood, Massachusetts, returned to their jobs on 31 January with their heads held high, their pride intact, and most importantly their premium benefits package unsevered. 
 
CertainTeed management came at the members of IBT Local 25 late last year with a proposal to abandon the union’s Health and Welfare Fund and replace it with an inferior company-managed plan. Such a plan would have left the workers with far fewer health care benefits, leaving them largely unprotected from illness or injury.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1201.certanteed.jpg" width="154" height="160" alt=""/>
Workers took strike action on 19 December and when the company refused to move from its regressive proposals in US federal mediation on 13 January, Norwood Teamsters expanded their strike. Besides working with the ICEM and French union CFDT to take the dispute directly to executives of Saint-Gobain in Paris, they began handbilling other non-Teamster and non-represented CertainTeed and Saint-Gobain plants in the US. 
 
“Our members would not accept the company plan and made that loud and clear to us,” said Local 25 Business Representative George Slicis. “We were on the picket line for 40 days, 24/7, through the holidays and in bad weather, and we were not going back unless the Teamster health care plan went back with us.” 
 
The 69-0 vote last Sunday made that an affirmative. In bargaining again supervised by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) on 26 January, CertainTeed backed off the takeaways. Although there will be a very slight increase in workers’ out-of-pocket costs for continuation of the premium health coverage of US$6-per-week, that will be more than offset with the union negotiating a US$500 bonus each in years one through four of the labour agreement. 
 
In addition, starting in year two, or late in 2012, and continuing in 2013, 2014 and 2015, workers will receive a 2% wage increase. Local 25 also won company-paid increases to the New England Teamsters Pension Fund of 10% in years one and two, and 6% each in the remaining years. 
 
The ICEM congratulates Local 25 members at CertainTeed for their resolve in maintaining their earned benefits package and also commends Jean-Francois Renucci of CFDT, who took the case to preserve the US workers’ health and welfare insurance to top Saint-Gobain leaders.

US Teamsters at Saint-Gobain Succeed in Retaining Premium Health Care

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The start of 2012 has seen deadly circumstances facing Colombian trade unionists deteriorate even further. The leadership of ICEM-affiliated Sintraelecol, the Electric Power Workers’ Union, is now being systematically threatened. 
 
Sintraelecol leaders Marcelino José López Perez and Danuil Gómez Perez have escaped harm in three attempts on their lives in a period of six weeks, from 19 December, in the Northern city of Montería Córdoba. The only way to ensure their safety is to arrange for them to leave the country, since no protection is offered by the authorities or by the employer. 
 
The ICEM is currently working on their exit. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1202.sintraelecol danuil.jpg" width="131" height="122"/>
Danuil Gómez Perez
Martin Porto and Walberto Figueroa are other Sintraelecol leaders working at Electricaribe, a subsidiary of Spanish energy provider Gas Natural, who have received death threats. The four trade unionists believe that the threats and attacks are directly related to their union activities. 
 
In the latest attempted murder on 1 February, hit men on motorbikes armed with revolvers approached the car of Marcelino López while he was visiting an infirmed co-worker at his home. Fortunately for López, he was not in the car at the moment of attack and his bodyguards managed to apprehend one of the thugs, taking him immediately to police. 
 
Sintraelecol has condemned the lack of urgency by the authorities and the National Protection Unit of the Interior Ministry’s Human Rights Office in assessing the risk facing its leaders. And the ICEM has also. The investigation is still in the evaluation phase. 
 
Even full-time bodyguards cannot ensure safety for Sintraelecol’s leaders, however. The ICEM is pursuing other avenues to ensure assassinations do not occur. Local management has failed to relocate Marcelino López and Danuil Gómez to Bogota for their safety, although they are contractually obliged to do so in these circumstances. 
 
See a <a href="http://vimeo.com/27211869">moving documentary</a> into the effects of a culture of murders with impunity in Colombia, in Spanish.

Sintraelecol Leaders Targeted, ICEM Demands Colombia, Employer Give Protection

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
A joint Executive Committee meeting of three European trade union federations on 31 January put the final touches on statutes, a political programme, and also nominated candidates for leadership in what is to become a united eight-million-member industrial workers’ federation. The meeting, held near Mechelen, Belgium, was attended by 150 national union leaders from 25 nations. 
 
The European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers’ Federation (EMCEF), European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF) and the European Trade Union Federation for textiles, Clothing, Leather and Footwear (ETUF-TCL) are now geared to formally merge on 16 May 2012 in Brussels, with dissolution Congresses coming a day earlier. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1109.euro%20merger%20logos.jpg" width="200" height="74"/>
The joint Executive decreed that the new federation will strive to become a fighting force for a dynamic economic framework that allows industry to thrive as the motor for jobs and sustainable growth across Europe. The three current federations vowed that “social progress and the European social model cannot be sacrificed at the altar of ultra-liberal dogma.” 
 
Although the new grouping has yet to formally adopt a name, its temporary moniker is the European Industrial Workers’ Federation (EIWF). 
 
Michael Vassiliadis, President of Germany’s IGBCE, was nominated to serve as President, while current EMF General Secretary Ulrich Eckelmann was nominated to be General Secretary. Anders Ferbe of IF Metall, Sweden, Renzo Ambrosetti, UNIA, Switzerland, and Valeria Fedeli, CGIL FILCTEM, Italy, were nominated as Vice Presidents, while Sylvain Lefebvre, EMCEF, Bart Samyn, EMF, and Luc Triangle, ETUF-TCL, were nominated as Deputy General Secretaries. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0907.Michael%20Vassiliadis.jpg" width="165" height="140"/>
Michael Vassiliadis
The new federation will consist of four policy committees – Collective Bargaining and Social Policy, Company Policy Committee, Industrial Policy Committee, and Social Dialogue Policy Committee. It will also be composed of eight regions: South, Benelux, Central, South-East, Eastern, British, Nordic/Baltic, and South-West.

Curtain Up on Europe’s New Trade Union Industrial Federation

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Some 360,000 Indian miners, many of them represented by the ICEM affiliate, the Indian National Mineworkers’ Federation (INWF), have a new five-year labour agreement achieved under the National Coal Wage Agreement. The agreement with the world’s largest coal company, state-owned Coal India Ltd. (CIL), and five unions calls for 25% wage increases over the term of the agreement. 
 
Signed on 31 January in Delhi, it is backdated to 1 July 2011. The agreement was finalised by the joint bipartite consultative committee (JBCC) on 27-28 January. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Mine Entrance.jpg" width="221" height="160" alt=""/>
“After discussions, the management agreed to a 25% minimum guaranteed benefits on gross wages,” said General Secretary S Q Zama of INMF, affiliated to the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC). Along with Brother Zama, INMF and INTUC leaders Sanjeeva Reddy, Rajendra Prassad Singh, S Panigrahi, GVR Sarma, B Venkat Rao and R Algamkar took part in the signing. 
 
An increase in all basic allowances of 88% will take effect throughout the agreement, and higher housing allowances in non-urban areas and management substitution bonuses were also won for workers filling those roles. 
 
Further gains will be made when reports are submitted and agreed to on retirees’ medical benefits, and on aspects pertaining to contract workers. 
 
The other unions involved in this ninth set of National Coal Wage talks are affiliates of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), and the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC). The new accord will cost CIL US$788.6 million over the five-year period.

India’s Mine Unions, Coal India Reach 5-Year Labour Agreement

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, Latin America/Caribbean Regional Vice-President Sergio Novais, and Regional Contact Person Carol Bruce conducted a mission to Ecuador, Colombia, and Costa Rica from 13 to 20 January 2010 to visit affiliates, make new contacts and attend a Social Dialogue conference in Colombia. 
 
The ICEM mission started the round in Ecuador on 13 January and the next day the Electricity Workers’ Union was visited. This union was instrumental in creating the new confederation of public sector workers, which is made up of 70,000 members in the electricity sector, as well as in health, the oil industry, national telephone, public workers, education and transport. It took three years to build the confederation. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1202.carol manfred.jpg" width="253" height="160"/>
The most innovative factor about the confederation is a new approach, moving from protest to proposal. In the meantime, the realization has arisen that tripartite dialogue is necessary. The idea is to develop the state with workers’ participation. The confederation supports the process of the citizens’ revolution. It broadcasts a radio program to educate and inform workers. Steps are being taken to limit outsourcing according to the recent legislation. 
 
ICEM can expect to receive an application for affiliation from the Electricity Workers’ Union of Ecuador in the near future. 
 
The delegation arrived in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, on 15 January. The social dialogue conference was held the next day and the only employer that attended were two managers from the Carbones del Cerrejón mine, who praised the cooperation with ICEM which has enabled the mine to enjoy labor peace. The unions who participated were Sintraelecol, Sintragasquimed, Sintracarbón, Sintravidricol, Sintracarcol, Fenaltec and USO, as well as the IMF affiliate, Sintracerramotoso. 
 
These conferences have been going on since 2004. One recurring theme is sub-contracting. The question is to know whether conflicts are solvable on the basis of dialogue and whether dialogue has contributed to collective bargaining. Social dialogue is an innovative process in a country marked by entrenched violence. The idea is to contribute to peace in Colombia. 
 
Warda explained some of the Congress resolutions, especially concerning the creation of the new Global Union Federation. He stressed that Colombia would continue to be a priority. 
 
Novais clarified that the value of social dialogue is to continue to speak and negotiate regularly with the other side, and not just during wage negotiations. He explained that ICEM is working on multi-Latinas in the region to get workers organized in those companies. One priority in the region is networks, and 12 networks are up and running. It will be up to ICEM to pass our values and experience on to the new organisation. 
 
Philippe Potdevin from the Cerrejón mine offered ICEM the possibility to develop an agreement along the lines of a Global Agreement based on the Global Compact. This might be an incentive for other companies in Colombia to take a greater interest in social dialogue, and he also indicated that he would urge other companies to work together with ICEM. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1202.colombia vecino.jpg" width="202" height="160"/>
Manfred Warda, Rodolfo Vecino, Carlos Bustos
Two conflicts were mentioned in particular. First was the conflict with Rudolfo Vecino, President of USO, which fortunately was solved favourably with his reinstatement just before the delegation arrived in Colombia. The second is still pending and refers to the ex-President of Sintraelecol, Danuil Gomez, who is faced with death threats. His employer Gas Natural has been asked to transfer him to Bogotá, otherwise his life is in danger in Córdoba. 
 
Marcelino Lopez, also from Sintraelecol, is also at similar risk. Some companies apparently work openly or covertly with paramilitaries in the dirty war. 
 
USO and Sintracerramatoso operate in areas that are controlled by the paramilitaries. It is very difficult for them to have access to workers. Union members are harassed and sacked and threatened and even killed, while many multinationals work with security companies that are linked to paramilitaries. The request is to organise a meeting for the unions in the energy and mining sectors to develop joint strategies to confront the government and to design a work plan. 
 
USO considers itself faced with annihilation of the union. Ecopetrol is facing privatization, and in addition, because of sub-contracting, there are six times more contract workers than direct employees, or 10,000 direct workers to 60,000 contractors. 
 
In conclusion, Warda summed up by proposing putting pressure on Endesa and Repsol to join the social dialogue process. His final comment, however, was a criticism of Colombian unions – something in their structures apparently stands in the way of women’s participation. 
 
In the meantime, ICEM is attempting to put a forum together in Madrid where Spanish multinationals would pledge to reject violence in Colombia and to work toward eliminating the killing of trade unionists. The UGT Spanish foundation ISCOD is working with human rights lawyers in Colombia, and ICEM Colombia Coordinator Carlos Bustos will be invited to join them. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1202.costa rica.jpg" width="334" height="159"/>
On 18 January, the delegation met with the board of Sitrapequia in San José, Costa Rica. The discussion focused on the importance of public-sector unions in Costa Rica and the difficulty of organizing unions in the private sector. One possibility will be the attempt to organise the Bridgestone/Firestone plant in San José, since there is an opening just now with the company manager for the Americas. This opportunity will be explored together with SUTNA, ICEM’s rubber workers’ union affiliate from Argentina.

ICEM Mission Visits Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica

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