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With a 75% ratification vote announced late on 7 July, Canadian nickel mining and processing workers represented by United Steelworkers (USW) Locals 6500 and 6200 in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, ended a 360-day strike against Vale SA. The Brazilian mining company and 3,500 USW members now begin a five-year collective agreement after a contentious strike that ended with both sides compromising on terms in mediated bargaining. 
 
Those terms were pieced together in high-level mediation from 19-22 June in Toronto. But final accord still eluded both sides due to differences in setting forth a just process through arbitration of Vale’s unilateral sacking of nine strikers. Over 3-4 July, through the insistence of Ontario Provincial Labour Minister Peter Fonseca, a process was established, opening the way for the 6-7 July contract vote. 
 
Still to be resolved, however, is another strike over a separate labour contract between Vale and USW Local 9508 involving 200 steelworkers in Voiseys Bay and Goose Bay, Labrador. Those strikers have been out since 1 August 2009. The USW and Vale are expected to return to bargaining in mid-July in eastern Canada’s maritime province, and resolution appears imminent following the Ontario approval. There, 84% of total membership of the two branch unions turned out last week to ratify. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0908.usw.canada.png" width="347" height="138"/>
The contract acceptance in Ontario thus closes a chapter to one of Canada’s most acrimonious labour disputes, a dispute that saw mining and other unions from around the world galvanize behind the USW in efforts to preserve previously negotiated wage and work terms. The ICEM and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) helped coordinate the global campaign. 
 
In a joint statement, ICEM and IMF General Secretaries Manfred Warda and Jyrki Raina said: “The perseverance and character of USW members in Ontario and Labrador is what trade unions everywhere will remember about this strike. Their fight became our fight and thus they laid the building blocks on how to wage a coordinated global campaign.” 
 
The five-year agreement in Ontario includes yearly wage increases that, coupled with cost-of-living increases, will increase salaries between C$2.25 and C$2.50 per hour over the life of the agreement. The existing defined benefit pension plan for current workers also increases in increments over the contract term, with cost-of-living indexing and life-time health care benefits preserved. 
 
In compromises made by the two sides, a defined contribution pension plan for new hires was agreed to that provides company contributions equal to 8% of employees’ regular basic earnings, with workers able to contribute additionally between 2% to 6% of regular earnings. This plan includes long-term disability coverage that is the same as that contained in the defined benefit pension plan. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1007.vale.settlement.png" width="347" height="138"/>
The nickel production bonus was retained, although at levels less than the previously negotiated bonus. Workers can still supplement regular earnings by up to C$15,000 per year, with compromise struck on the price of nickel in which the trigger kicks in. The prior trigger of US$2.25 per pound was increased to US$3.75, less than the US$5.00-per-pound originally sought by Vale. 
 
The new contract includes a C$2,000 signing bonus for all returning and retiring employees, with two additional C$1,000 bonuses linked to production numbers in the last one-third of 2010. 
 
It also includes a side agreement setting forth rigid contracting-out criteria, which will serve as a job security measure. 
 
A retirement incentive bonus was negotiated that will give workers with 30 years service a one-time C$30,000 retirement stipend, with C$15,000 granted to those with 27-29 years. A reduction in force was also agreed to of 113 jobs, with those redundancies very likely to come by way of attrition. 
 
The return-to-work agreement calls for Vale to recall USW members beginning in the next to the last week of July, and no later that 11 August. In the separate agreement involving the fate of the nine discharged USW Local 6500 members, the two sides agreed to have the Ontario Labour Relations Board make a determination on whether or not the unjust firings will go to independent arbitration. Those governmental hearings began on 9 July. 
 
In the USW’s statement announcing the ratification, District Six Director Wayne Fraser said, "Our members have spoken and I believe everyone respects the decisions they have made in extremely difficult circumstances.”

Canadian USW Members Ratify 5-Year Collective Agreement with Vale 

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The ICEM Latin American and Caribbean Regional Committee met on 28 June in Recife in Northeastern Brazil. The meeting was preceded by a one-day meeting on contract and agency labour (CAL). It was likewise followed by the 6th Statutory Congress of CNQ/CUT, the CUT chemical union. 
 
The workshop was attended by ICEM affiliates from Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Uruguay. They spoke about how CAL is being used to undermine trade unions, for example in Sintracarbón in Colombia where trade union activists are being transferred from permanent positions into what are known as ‘rubbish contracts’. Affiliates also spoke about the problems of triangular employment relationships, with CAL workers not being clear on who is ultimately responsible for their working conditions. 
 
Participants exchanged information on the increasing efforts being made to halt the outsourcing of employment and abusive use of short-term contracts. The ICEM is working to create networks to facilitate ongoing exchange of experience and information between affiliates. Affiliates shared how their unions are integrating CAL issues in their policy development, and how they are exploring new ways of organising CAL workers. The Brazilian Petrobras union reported how two-thirds of the company’s workforce is employed on short-term contracts or through employment agencies, but how the union had succeeded in getting the company to establish a fund to protect these workers against unemployment. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1007.recife.CAL.2.JPG" width="266" height="180"/>
Manfred Warda and the project coordinators from left to right: Sergio Novais, ICEM Regional Vice-President, Ashling Seely, Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary, Marilane Oliveira Teixeira, Patricio Sambonino, Rosane Sasse, Elias Soares 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda closed the meeting, saying that Governments must be made aware that ILO Conventions apply equally to contract and agency workers, and that where there are obstacles to full rights for CAL workers these should be tackled with legal actions. Warda also spoke about the need to work against the practices of the World Bank and the IFC, organisations which are still advising governments that they need to create what they call more ‘flexible’ labour markets. Warda concluded by calling on participants to inform the ICEM when there are CAL-related problems with companies. 
 
The regional committee meeting evaluated the activities carried out in the region since 2008 on the basis of the strategic plan drawn up in Uruguay. Three new unions were also ratified as new affiliates. The ICEM General Secretary spoke to the meeting about the ongoing effects of the global financial crisis, especially in Europe. He also updated the group on the talks with other GUF’s on cooperation and building new international structures.

ICEM Regional Committee, CAL Workshop Meet in Recife, Brazil

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In a rare advisory referendum taken amongst members of the Dutch national union FNV, 80% of those voting agreed with the negotiated result between unions and employer federations to raise the basic retirement pension (AOW) age of the country. 
 
In balloting between 19 June and 1 July, 160,000 of 1.4 million union members voted that the Dutch retirement age ought to be raised from 65 to 66 in the year 2020, and then possibly to 67 in 2025 if a national evaluation of higher life expectancy after 2020 warrants it. The advisory vote goes to FNV’s Council on 14 July, which is now expected to endorse the 4 June negotiated agreement between social partners. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0902.Henk.Holland.jpg" width="166" height="130"/>
FNV Bondgenoten President Henk van der Kolk
The negotiated social plan is seen as a guiding measure to a deadlocked government on retirement policy. The results of a 9 June election in the Netherlands revealed that any coalition government quite likely would come up with an even worse solution on pension revenue shortfalls and mandatory retirement age. 
 
Under the proposed social plan, workers would still have the option to retire at 65, but they would face a 6.5% reduction in pension benefits. And under the union-business plan, the lowest-paid workers, and workers who do heavy physical jobs, would be exempt from any rise in the current pension age. 
 
FNV Bondgenoten President Henk van der Kolk said he was pleased with the outcome of the late June balloting, calling it “a clear result.” The advisory referendum, a difficult administrative undertaking, was only the fifth time that FNV has even taken such a vote from its entire union membership.

FNV Members Give Nod to Raise Future Pension Age in the Netherlands

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Under the auspices of the ‘ICEM Asia MNCs and Social Dialogue Project’, worker representatives and management of Thai Industrial Gas (Linde) participated in a joint training session on social dialogue, 28 June in Bangkok, Thailand. 
 
The purpose of the joint training was to seek a possibility of establishing peaceful and cooperative labour relations by analysing how the international standards for social dialogue are respected inside the company. 
 
Forty participants joined the training, with seven participants from senior management, including the Managing Director and heads of all major departments. 
 
The other 33 participants were trade unionists. Four participants came from the ICEM Thai Committee and the other 29 participants from the TIG/LINDE union including Nopphadol Sanom, president of TIG Labour Union, and Sutthirak Yalomphan, Vice-president. 
 
Union participants came from 5 plants, all near to Bangkok; TIG/LINDE has a total of 13 plants in Thailand. The union participants had to use their own annual leave to participate in the training, and applied voluntarily to take part. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1007.linde.thailand.JPG" width="357" height="120"/>
The company Managing Director, Mr. Keerin, gave a welcome speech on behalf of management, while Nopphadol, union president, emphasized the importance of implementing international standards agreed by LINDE HQ at the local level. 
 
Dr. Ahn Pongsul, ILO Bangkok Office Senior Specialist, made a presentation on the Basic Principles of Social Dialogue. He stressed the basic enabling conditions to materialize social dialogue at enterprise level, such as a democratic environment, union recognition, two-way communication, mutual commitment and good will, respect, and adequate institutional support. 
 
Mr. Keerin (MD) made a presentation on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Policy of TIG/LINDE. A union participant said that he had never heard of the company’s CSR policy in his 12-year service. 
 
Yoon Hyowon, ICEM’s Project Coordinator for MNC monitoring and Social Dialogue, made a presentation on ILO Core Conventions, OECD Guidelines and the UN Global Compact. The information on the international standards was almost new to management participants. Management participants had not been aware that LINDE had joined the UN Global Compact in 2005. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1007.linde.thailand.2.JPG" width="150" height="179"/>
Yoon pointed out that the Linde Code of Ethics had not been translated into Thai, while it had been into Chinese and Korean in Asia. Mr. Sansern, Head of Human Resources, said that the translation was in process. 
 
In the meeting with union leaders on 27 June prior to the joint training, they said that management had consistently interfered with union activity, that collective agreement were poorly implemented or often ignored, that management had discriminated against CAL workers and union members, that any company information such as financial data and outsourcing had not been disclosed, that unconditional 12-hour work for drivers had been systematically forced by management, and that management had not provided any union facility for constructive collective bargaining. 
 
In concluding the joint training, Yoon Hyowon proposed management and the union to implement the following points: 
1. To organize training for all employees on international standards agreed to by Linde HQ; 
2. To organize a social dialogue forum to compare the actual situation of the company with international standards, especially the chapters 3 and 4 of OECD Guidelines on MNEs; 
3. To translate the Linde Code of Ethics into Thai; 
4. To post and distribute the UN Global Compact inside factories; 
5. To post and distribute OECD Guidelines inside factories. 
 
In the closing session, all participants from management and the union acknowledged that there was a long way to go for both parties to properly implement international standards promised by Linde HQ. At the same time, all participants from both sides expressed their commitment to social dialogue.

Thai Gas Industry Social Dialogue Meeting, Brings Management, Workers to the Table

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The ICEM affiliate in Peru, the National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union (FNTMMSP), have ended a 10 day strike at Chinese-owned iron ore miner Shougang Hierro Peru and accepted a deal proposed by Ica region's labour department (DRTI). Acting as arbitrator to the dispute, the DRTI proposed a 3.1 sol (US$1.10) per day raise for the 1,600 mineworkers and a 93 sol (US$35) per month increase for non-mineworkers, as well as a one-time bonus of 1,000 soles. 
 
The original proposal, made by the national Ministry of Labour, offered workers a one-time bonus of 900 soles, as well as a wage increase of 87 soles for non-mineworkers and 2.9 soles for miners. Rejecting this offer, workers began an indefinite strike on 28 June. Operations at the Marcona mine were also halted in March as a result of a three-day strike by workers, see ICEM report <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3697-Peru’s-Doe-Run-Miners-Reach-Agreement-Ending-Strike" type="internal">here</a>. 
 
Shougang is Peru's only iron ore producer, output in the first quarter of 2010 was 1.47 million tonnes, a 45.4% increase on last year. 
 
The strike, halting production, caused the company major losses and Shougang was forced to declare force majeure on iron ore shipments. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910PeruFNTMMSPLuis%20Castillo.jpg" width="160" height="120"/>
FNTMMSP General Secretary, Luis Castillo Carlos
Elsewhere in Peru’s mining industry, US-owned Doe Run continues to refuse to restart operations at the polymetallic smelter in the town of La Oroya, as a 27 July deadline approaches. Before restarting operations, the company is asking for flexibility to pay taxes and fines, as well as modification of a 1997 privatization agreement that would protect the firm and its parent company from environmental lawsuits abroad. 
 
Doe Run Peru also requested the government to delay application of environmental standards at the La Oroya complex. The area is described as one of the most polluted areas in the world. 
 
While the company continues to dodge government demands, workers have been without work. One possible solution considered by Doe Run Peru is to relocate operations entirely, this would decimate the economy in La Oroya and neighbouring Junin region, and Doe Run Peru workers will not accept relocation plan. 
 
Doe Run Peru is an affiliate of the New York-based Renco Group.

Peru’s Shougang Mineworkers End Strike, Achieve Wage Gains

The UK Equality and Human Rights Commission recently published the damning results of an inquiry into the recruitment and treatment of agency workers in the meat and poultry processing sector in England and Wales. 
 
Although the investigation focused exclusively on the meat and poultry industry, it was said that “...the Commission has no evidence to suggest that supply chain practices in the meat processing sector are more detrimental to workers than in any other sector that makes significant use of low-paid, agency migrant labour.” 
 
The Commission found evidence of widespread poor treatment of agency workers, especially among those who are migrants or who are pregnant, both by agencies and by user enterprises. In particular, the Commission found evidence of practices that contravene legal requirements, ethical trading standards, and basic human rights. Other types of treatment were described as being “an affront to dignity.” 
 
One-third of agencies told the investigators that they had acted unlawfully by recruiting workers of particular nationalities, by giving preference to candidates with particular nationalities they judged the user firm would prefer, or by discriminating against certain nationalities at the direct request of the user firm. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.cal.equality.png" width="237" height="60"/>
While flexibility is often cited as being an advantage of agency work by the industry, only two workers cited the flexibility of agency work as a positive aspect. Almost all workers said they would prefer permanent work due to the security and rights it offers. More than 80% of the interviewees said that agency workers were treated worse than permanent workers in every aspect of their job. The agency workers said they received poorer pay, were allocated the worst jobs, and were treated like inferiors. Not a single interviewee thought that agency workers were treated better than their permanent counterparts. 
 
Workers reported being refused toilet breaks, and enduring physical and verbal abuse. Concerns about health and safety were raised in over half the interviews, and many interviewees expressed concern that their personal protective equipment was poor quality, ill fitting, shared with other workers, or missing altogether. 
 
The Commission found that abusive treatment was less common in organised factories, and said that “In workplaces where unions are recognised, or have a strong presence, we found that they provide a significant degree of protection for workers.” However, some workers reported that their right to Freedom of Association had been restricted and reported instances where hostility of companies towards union activities discouraged people from joining a union for fear of retribution. 
 
The report concludes with a set of recommendations to key bodies in the industry to “encourage a systematic change in behaviour,” and improve the operations of the Gangmaster Licensing Authority (GLA). Although outside of its remit, the Commission said “...that there is a case for broadening the GLA’s remit to include other sectors where low-paid agency workers are at risk of exploitation” and urged the government to positively consider this proposal. 
 
Commenting on the findings, Nicola Smith, Senior Policy Officer at the UK’s Trades Union Congress (TUC), said, “This strongly evidenced based report demonstrates the scale of mistreatment that continues across low paid industries, where temporary workers with insecure employment status face some of the greatest risks. The TUC remains concerned that such exploitative practices are not confined to the meat processing sector.”

Report on Abusive Treatment of Agency Workers in the UK 

Making available a significant number of key statistics, including the ICEM’s own, as well as a wide range of “best practice examples,” the ICEM issued a new comprehensive presentation on “CAL and the ICEM CAL campaign.” Slide by slide, this education tool provides information on the ICEM’s national and international CAL work, highlighting, among many other items, what unions around the world are doing in their daily struggles against precarious work. The presentation can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/2010CAL.ppt" type="internal">here</a>. 
 
The statistics indicate that the phenomenon of short-term, contract, agency and other precarious work is still growing in almost every part of the world. On the other hand, there also is progress being made. In a lot of countries, for example, laws have been changed for the better. In other cases, unions managed to gain improvements for precarious workers through successful collective bargaining. Trade unions are also increasingly looking towards their own structures and strategies, aiming to better protect and defend often non-affiliated CAL workers.

New CAL Facts and Figures Overview 

Strike actions in April and a flurry of trade union activities over the past two weeks have succeeded in bringing formal recognition to the ICEM affiliate, Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Industry Workers’ Trade Union of Georgia, at the Zestafoni Ferroalloys Plant and the Georgian Manganese mines, some 40 kilometres from Zestafoni in Chiatura. 
 
That was reinforced on 13 May after the union, backed by the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC), and top managers met for a second conciliation commission session and made headway towards resolving a host of demands put forward by workers. 
 
Miners and metalworkers were buoyed massively when, ten days after a three-day strike ended on 25 April that got management’s rapt attention, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal Özkan travelled to western Georgian to meet with workers. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.georgia.2.JPG" width="300" height="225"/>
(LtoR) Irakli Petriashvili, President of GTUC, Manfred Warda, GTUC interpreter, Kemal Özkan 
Bringing pledges of solidarity from the ICEM and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), Warda told Georgian workers they were not alone. And speaking before regional news media and to workers directly, Warda assured all that the combined strength of the two federations was ready and willing to take this fight beyond central Asia if that was needed. 
 
The message underscored a resolve borne through several months of struggle, culminating in a series of April incidents, including grievous intimidation tricks (see prior ICEM report <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3731-Miners-Metalworkers-Not-Intimidated-by-Georgian-Manganese-Managers" type="internal">here</a>) by management that served only to bring more staff into the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers’ fold. 
 
Initially in the 13 May negotiations, managers and their attorneys sought involvement of an existing but dying “yellow” union in the talks. But the seven union members of the joint, bilateral commission threatened to walk out and begin renewed strike actions. The union and GTUC representatives then showed managers a large number of power-of-attorney statements by workers that expressed their allegiance to the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers’ Union. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.georgia.3.JPG" width="300" height="142"/>
Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers’ Union Members
Recognition was achieved. The numerous petitions that workers demand to improve their working lives were then open for discussion. Foremost among them were wages. In the hours leading up to the talks, the ICEM and IMF scrambled to gather and succeeded in delivering wage rates from associated ferroalloy plants in Ukraine, owned by the metals arm of PrivatBank. 
 
Miners at the Georgian Manganese complex are paid an average monthly wage of GEL (lari) 450, or US$238, €192. Metalworkers at the ferroalloy plant in Zestafoni earn a monthly average of GEL 562, or US$298, €240. With both sides having already agreed to 1 May as the effective date for salary adjustments, management proposed a 15% increase for shift workers and 8% for day workers. 
 
This is unsatisfactory to the union side of the commission. But they are confident that further negotiations on 17-18 May, and again on 20 May, will bring long overdue percentage increases higher. The union did get a commitment at the 13 May set of talks that the enterprises will begin to comply with Georgia labour law regarding sick leave payments, including retroactive compensation for those workers who have been denied such pay. 
 
“It is a big step forward,” said Gocha Aleksandria, Vice President of the GTUC, who is a member of the 14-member conciliation commission. “The administration now accepts our union, but the hardest part is still ahead. We intend to achieve the obvious, meaningful, and tangible results for our members and that is permanent labour contracts that address all issues.” 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.georgia.4.JPG" width="304" height="241"/>
Some of those issues include raising the number of yearly paid leave days from 30 (metal) and 32 (mining) to 35; creation of a joint contributory pension fund to supplement a miserly state pension; better safety and health conditions; and an upgrade to medical facilities. 
 
Even prior to the first commission negotiations, on 7 May, management reacted to workers’ militancy and ICEM’s mission statement of that week by agreeing to permanent work contracts, as well as reinstatement of two union leaders who were discharged for strike activities. (At the 13 May session, management agreed to pay the two their full April salaries.) 
 
Another accomplishment in the recent bargaining is that union leaders will bring their demands directly to Georgian shareholders of the enterprises. The complex ownership of the ferroalloy plant and manganese mines has stock ownership by privately-held Stemcor Holdings of the UK, with shares also traded publicly on the Georgian bourse with Georgia entrepreneurs and the Ukrainian oligarch Gennadiy Boholyubov and his manganese empire that is tied to PrivatBank holding vast sums. 
 
For now, the 3,600 miners and 2,200 metalworkers have a free and democratic union they can call their own – the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Industry Workers’ Trade Union of Imereti Region. But as Aleksandria states, the journey now begins in earnest: erstwhile dialogue to gain the wage levels, benefits and work conditions that they justly deserve.

Recognition Realised for Georgian Miners, Metalworkers at Manganese Operations

The ICEM Executive Committee, meeting in Geneva on 26-27 May 2010, is deeply disturbed by the extraordinary high number of workplace deaths and injuries in recent months, particularly in mining and both upstream and downstream oil and gas industries. This deterioration in safety and health conditions is attributable, the Executive Committee believes, to the rush to maximize profits by corporations in the wake of the financial crisis, and a general disregard to follow best practices in safety and health by these same corporations and, in some cases, governments. 
 
The ICEM points to the 17 May mine explosion in Zonguldak province, Turkey, which killed 30 workers as just one example. The Karadon mine is state-owned, but private contractors without trade union representation and with limited experience on safety matters operate this mine. The ICEM also points to the tragic explosion in May of the Raspadskaya mine in the Kemerovo region of the Russian Federation. Ninety miners perished and although cause of the methane gas explosion remains unknown, the ICEM deplores the coal-mining pay structure in Russia in which monthly salaries are kept extremely low and workers are expected to supplement their pay by reaching high production quotas. 
 
As well, the ICEM condemns Massey Energy in the United States, a company that has viciously avoided union representation while challenging all US federal mine safety citations given the company. Such appeals serve to delay corrective measures needed in Massey’s mine. The 5 April explosion inside Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine in the state of West Virginia, killing 29 miners, was compounded and made worse by the callousness and arrogance of the company’s CEO in the aftermath of the explosion. 
 
In South Africa, where overall, mine safety is improving due to the militancy of the National Union of Mineworkers, the ICEM notes three miners were needlessly killed at AngloGold Ashanti in late April, bringing to over 30 the official death toll thus far in the country’s mining industry. The ICEM also cites a recent roof collapse inside the Barapukuria Coal Mine Company in Dinajpur, Bangladesh, which killed and maimed several workers. An improper support system was the cause. Major mining accidents dating back to 2009 have also occurred in Poland, the Ukraine, and India. Also, the ICEM takes notice of continued deaths inside China’s vast coal-mining industry and the fact that the death rate increased by 14% in the first quarter of 2010 over the same period in 2009. ICEM strongly believes this increase is due to negligence in safety in pursuit of greater production. 
 
In the oil and gas industries, the same is true. While much is made of the environmental destruction along the United States Gulf coast brought about by the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, which indeed merits attention and the wrath against BP, who is the overall responsible operator, and its contractors, Transocean and Halliburton. Little is made of the fact that 11 offshore workers died and 15 others were severely injured. 
 
In the downstream oil sector as well, a rash of fires and explosions recently in the USA and elsewhere proves that the industry is neglecting correct process safety principles and procedures. 
 
The ICEM calls on the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors of the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries to engage the legitimate trade union representatives in correcting systematic deficiencies in safety procedures and methods to minimize this industry’s inherent risks. 
 
The ICEM specifically recalls at this time recent and horrific accidents such as the tragic refinery explosion of the Tesoro company at its Anacortes, state of Washington, refinery that killed seven dedicated union members in April 2010, as well as the death of a contract employee in the state of Texas, and very recent fires at ExxonMobil’s refinery in the state of Louisiana and a Valero refinery in the state of Tennessee, both seriously injuring workers. The ICEM grieves the death of a Petrobras worker at an onshore oil field in the state of Bahia in May. 
 
The ICEM also recognizes that there have been further workplace deaths in other sectors, many brought on by the expanded utilization of contract workers by companies attempting to decrease direct employment. 
Therefore, the ICEM firstly endorses the hour-long strike actions planned by affiliate Genel Maden-Is of Turkey in the Zonguldak region in the aftermath of the Karadon explosion that will take place on 26 May in protest of the government’s general disregard for adherence of global safety standards. 
 
The ICEM also reiterates its campaign for ratification of ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, and pledges to intensify efforts to directly engage governments of resource-rich nations that have not ratified this Convention into doing so. Further, as an integral component of Convention 176, the ICEM insists that trade unions be fully involved in all design, safety methodology, and implementation of safety equipment, as well as fully involved in investigatory work following accidents or malfunctions. 
 
The ICEM pledges it will alert affiliates when there is incidence of mass deaths inside any work facility that is caused by negligence or faulty safety systems. It is the expectation that trade union affiliates will bring attention to these horrific acts to their own governments and inside their own enterprises in order that a new safety consciousness is raised. 
 
It is also the ICEM’s expectation that the ILO take immediate action in regard to implementation of ILO Convention 176, focusing on stricter methane gas controls and ventilation systems. ICEM also expects that the ILO will investigate causes of recent negligence in mine safety accidents, namely pay systems that reward maximum productivity to the detriment of safety, and mining enterprises that rely on temporary or short-term contract workers. 
 
The ICEM also calls for ratification and strict adherence to ILO Convention 155, the Occupational Safety and Health Convention; Convention 174, the Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents Convention; Convention 162, the Asbestos Convention; Convention 148, the Working Environment (Air Pollution, Noise, Ventilation); Convention 136, the Benzene Convention; Convention 170, the Chemicals Convention; Convention 115, the Radiation Protection Convention; Convention 139, the Occupational Cancer Convention; Convention 183, the Maternity Protection Convention; as well as attention to the ILO Guidelines on Health and Safety Management Systems. 
 
Finally, the ICEM calls on other Global Union Federations to join its campaign for better safety and health conditions throughout all industries.

Executive Committee Resolution on Safety in ICEM Sectors

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The ICEM Executive Committee, on the second day of its annual deliberations 27 May, denounced Iraq’s government for continued failure to enact a draft labour law, as well as numerous and current prohibitions against trade union activities. 
 
The resolution noted continued adherence to a Saddam Hussein decree that bans trade unions in the public sector, which includes the oil, gas, and electric power industries, and continued imposition of Decree 8750, imposed by the occupation forces in August 2005. That draconian decree, equally restriction on trade union rights as the Saddam one, grants government the power to take over unions at will and forbids trade unions from holding any assets or collecting subscriptions from workers. 
 
The resolution also addresses the forced removals of trade union leaders from their work in the oil, gas, and related sectors, and condemns the most recent imposition by the government in restricting trade unionists from travelling outside the country. In that, the Supreme Ministerial Committee on Supervising the Implementation of the Governing Council Resolution No. 3-2005 must issue approval to those trade unionists seeking to travel or those invited outside of Iraq. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.excom.JPG" width="311" height="207"/>
ICEM Executive Committee
“The ICEM Executive Committee condemns all of these Iraqi government acts against trade unions,” states the resolution. “We salute the bravery of our Iraqi brothers and sisters who continue to organise, represent and protect workers despite these attacks and a background of continued and escalating violence in the society at large. 
 
“We are appalled that seven years after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, workers in Iraq are still without legislative protection of their fundamental rights at work.” 
 
(The complete resolution can be found in English <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/IraqExecResolution27May2010.pdf" type="internal">here</a>, and in Arabic <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006.iraqresolution.ec.pdf" type="internal">here</a>.) 
 
The resolution notes the fact that trade unions inside Iraq have mounted a campaign for a globally-recognised labour law, complete with a website (found <a href="http://www.iraqitradeunions.org/cgi-bin/campaign1.cgi">here</a>) and encourages all trade unionists everywhere to visit the site and register your support for a fair and just labour law inside Iraq. The ICEM strongly supports the campaign and the website.

ICEM Executive Condemns Repressive Union Actions by Iraq

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