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<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
ICEM’s Danish affiliated union 3F conducted its second Congress, 11-17 September, in the Aalborg Culture and Congress Centre. There were 855 delegates to the Congress, including ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, who attended as an international guest. 
 
3F is the largest trade union in Denmark, with 352,588 members from the following sectors: Transport, Building & Construction, Manufacturing industries, Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture/Market Gardens, Cleaning, Hotel & Restaurants, Delivery and distribution of newspapers and magazines. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1009.3f.president.jpg" width="133" height="112" alt=""/>
3F President Poul Erik Christensen
The 3F Congress sets policy and elects the union’s leadership and Executive Committee members. The six sections of 3F held separate conferences to discuss internal affairs of the section and to elect representatives to be put forward for election to the Federation’s Executive Committee. Also elected in the section conferences are the section leaders, and negotiation secretaries. Those six sections are: Industry, Public-Sector, Transport, Construction, Private-Sector Services, and Green. 
 
Among those re-elected at the Congress were President Christensen, and Per Soerensen 3F’s delegate to the ICEM Executive Committee. 
 
3F President Poul Erik Christensen proposed the at the union makes large financial backing to enact a change in government of Denmark, his proposal was accepted by Congress. Christensen will spend US$1million, “The question is not whether we can afford to support this, but whether we can afford not to,” stated President Christensen. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda addressed an event at the Congress for international guests. Warda praised 3F for its international solidarity work.

Denmark’s 3F Conduct 2nd Congress

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Last week, the ICEM was involved in meetings in Ecuador to get acquainted with unions whose interests coincide with the Global Union Federation. These meetings were unfortunately overshadowed by events on Thursday, 30 September, in which a small band of disgruntled police officers attempted a futile coup. 
 
The Ecuador meetings were sponsored by the FNV, the Dutch trade union national centre, which also supported a study on Chinese investment in Latin America, carried out by social research organisations of the Red Lat network. The study was presented on 28 September, also in the presence of the Chinese ambassador to Ecuador. 
 
China portrays itself as a soft power, a promoter of development, but the harder side of Chinese investment is its quest for natural resources. Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Peru are the countries that are the most attractive to China. Mining, oil, gas, and the accompanying infrastructure are the targets of Chinese investment. 
 
Unfortunately, China concentrates investments in areas that do not generate great employment. And even then, worker participation and decision-making in the production process are not considered. The sectors in which China invests primarily entail greater risks for precarious work, that is, mining and energy. For example, practices in the mining industry in Peru worsened after the arrival of Chinese investors. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1010.redlat.jpg" width="187" height="76" alt=""/>
One further concern involves Chinese workers who accompany the investments. If there were more Chinese workers, most likely their presence would lead to a serious decline in labor standards. 
 
In general, trade unions expect an employment boost from foreign investment, and if the investment is not followed by greater employment, then the country could be even worse off. 
 
What needs to be considered is the balance between environmental, labor, economic, social, and even gender aspects. The investments must be followed by decent work and decent pay. What has to be prevented is the replication of the bad practices on the part of most European and North American multinationals in connection with labor relations. 
 
Trade unions have learned that they must be involved in the design of industrial policies as well as demanding a commitment to their implementation. Trade unions in Latin America must increase their exchanges in order to track the investments, since effects may prove to be similar. The best way to face the onslaught may be increase regional coordination. What is at stake is ultimately the Latin American model of development which provides for national sovereignty, followed by job creation and social inclusion. 
On 29 September, a study was presented on a Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (FES) commissioned on post-subcontracting. It concerns mining, the oil industry, and electric power, and is the only study to date to deal with the effects of Ecuadorean legislation on the issue. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Ecuador.png" width="200" height="92" alt=""/>
Ecuador is the only country to pass a law banning subcontracting. Chile, moreover, has a law from 2006 that intends to regulate subcontracting, and legislation is still pending in Brazil, but Ecuador's law prohibits it. 
 
Trade unions in Ecuador had been suffering from flexibilization of labor, but there had not been any analysis of it, there were no proposals to combat it, and no strikes had been called to fight it. 
 
The mining industry in Ecuador is geographically dispersed with little organizational capacity. Ninety percent of mining in Ecuador is informal. Thus, there is no need to make the miners any more precarious. 
 
Subcontracting has vital effects on health and the environment. 
 
Mandate 8, as the legislation is called, is not likely to have much effect in mining because there are no strong unions to implement the measure. In the oil sector, it is a state enterprise was responsible for subcontracting. Companies have found ways to circumvent the legislation. When they were required to reinstate the regular workers, they were reinstated at lower salaries with no seniority. 
 
The electric power industry was dismantled and many workers left. Very few were left over from the previous regime, others again came back as contract workers, with new and younger workers hired. What is certain is concern on the part of trade union for contract workers. The union also created a branch for contract workers. 
 
What the legislation shows is that it is possible to fight subcontracting successfully. Nevertheless, the effects can be reversed, and the problem may reoccur under another name. That is why strong trade unions are necessary more than ever to monitor and ensure implementation of legislation. 
 
The study will be revised with information from the unions and presented soon to the government.

Coup Attempt in Ecuador Does Not Derail ICEM Project

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Over 3,300 garment workers in Kandal province, southern Cambodia, have been sacked after they took strike action in protest of the new monthly minimum wage for the sector. That wage, set in July, is for US$61 a month. 
 
There is also widespread discontent among workers in the sector over poor working conditions and unemployment. The main cause of anger now is the retaliatory sacking of strikers, and especially of the trade union activists for their roles in the strikes. 
 
Workers had demanded a raise of the minimum monthly wage from US$50 to US$93. The new minimum of US$61 does not constitute a living wage in Cambodia. Unions began a four-day strike on 13 September. The strike did not become an issue for employers until the third day, at which time an estimated 200,000 workers had joined the walk-out. It was stopped on 16 September so talks could resume. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Patrick Itschert.jpg" width="180" height="146" alt=""/>
ITGLWF General Secretary Patrick Itschert
But then further strike action was carried out by 10,000 workers on 17 September, calling for the reinstatement of 200 suspended union representatives, blocked from returning to work in blatant breach of their rights to organize, bargain, and strike. 
 
Social Affairs Minister Ith Sam Heng called for the reinstatement of all sacked workers, and pleaded with unions not to strike. His call was followed by three factories in Kandal province employing 3,300 workers who announced their refusal to comply with the Minister’s request. 
 
While it was the promise of more negotiations that stopped the strike, neither the government nor employers have indicated any likelihood of significant concessions. The government did call employers and unions back together on 27 September for talks. 
 
The International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) welcomed the meeting on September 27 brokered by the government, but criticised the strike-breaking tactics of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government. 
 
“[The government] filed law suits against union leaders on charges of ‘incitement,’ and appealed to the police to collaborate with the industry association GMAC in cracking down on the strike and in seizing materials which could be used in legal action against the strikers,” said ITGLWF General Secretary Patrick Itschert. 
 
Clothing brands and retailers including Adidas, Gap, H&M, and Levi’s wrote to employers and unions to express their “great concern” at the unrest, but have expressed no concern over the poverty wages paid to those workers making their products. 
 
Global retailers must take responsibility for the social damage caused by the “race to the bottom.” It is impossible for workers to receive anything higher than poverty wages unless global retailers pay suppliers reasonable prices. Instead, suppliers are forced year on year to produce larger orders at lower costs. 
 
Kandal province, where the affected factories are located, completely surrounds but does not include the national capital Phnom Penh.

Cambodian Garment Workers Sacked for Striking

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A lockout of 230 steelworkers by the American-based electronics firm Honeywell continues into month four at the company’s uranium hexaflouride (UF6) plant in the state of Illinois. Honeywell locked out members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669 on 28 June over workers’ refusal to accept steep out-of-pocket increases to their health care plan, as well as complete elimination of retiree health care coverage. 
 
The company’s demands are a slap in the face to workers who must toil inside an industry rife with hazards and long-term health risks. The plant in Metropolis, Illinois, on the Ohio River, is America’s only facility that mills “yellow cake” uranium into frozen fluid UF6 for enrichment use in nuclear reactors. 
 
The health risks to the community have become even more pronounced because Honeywell seeks to regain lost production by using temporary replacement workers, a draconian American management practice used in employer-imposed lockouts. Although the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not as yet authorized untrained scab workers to operate the Metropolis facility, Honeywell has retained a nuclear contracting firm called the Shaw Group to supply replacement workers. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1009.usw.superman.jpg" width="128" height="192"/>
The mayor of Metropolis, Billy McDaniel, expressed concern over community safety in a report in the St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch newspaper last month. With trained union workers represented by the former Oil, Chemical, Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) operating the facility dating back 46 years before that union’s 2005 merger with the USW, McDaniel said, “I never went to bed at night worried about the men being trained and capable of doing their jobs. I want to do that every night.” 
 
Added Chief Sheriff’s Department Deputy Ted Holder of Massac County, the governmental unit responsible for evacuation and emergency response in the event of a disaster, the use of non-regular employees to restart the facility is “a little concerning.” 
 
USW Local 7-669 offered to continue working under a prior three-year labour agreement that expired on 21 June 2010. The union is seeking no salary adjustments, but seeks to retain current health coverage. When the USW did not concede to granting management a 24-hour strike notice prior to any potential strike, Honeywell locked workers off their jobs. 
 
Under Honeywell’s proposal, out-of-pocket health coverage will increase to US$8,500 per worker each year. And besides eliminating company-paid health coverage for current retirees, Honeywell’s regressive proposals include establishing a two-tier pension scheme with future hires relegated to an inferior plan. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1009.usw.superman.2.jpg" width="123" height="148"/>
On 7 August, 3,000 union supporters traveled from across the American Midwest to Metropolis to lend support to Local 7-669. Earlier, and directly in front of the uranium enrichment facility, the Steelworker local branch erected 42 Christian crosses in memory of former workers who have died over the years from cancer. They erected another 27 smaller crosses as symbols of workers currently diagnosed with cancer. 
 
“What we do is a very, very dangerous job,” stated Local 7-669 President Darrell Lillie. “We deal with the worse acids known to man.”

Lockout of USW-represented Uranium Processing Plant in US Continues

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In Turkey, the ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş seeks to pre-empt an auto-parts rubber manufacturer from challenging a majority of workers in their right to collective bargaining. Standard Profil, a maker of rubber weather-sealing devices, met a public campaign last week by the union in the northern Anatolian city of Düzce, where the company operates its biggest factory. 
 
The public message was simple: Petrol-İş has succeeded in gaining well over 50% of Standard Profil’s 2,300 Turkish workers seeking union representation, the Labour Ministry has deemed Standard a part of the oil, chemicals, and rubber sector, so the company must forego any appeal and begin good faith social dialogue with Petrol-İş. 
 
It is common in Turkey for employers to thwart union recognition drives with frivolous appeals in order to block workers’ their legitimate workplace rights. Such appeals can take up to two years. By taking the Standard Profil appeal public, Petrol-İş, with a strong presence in Düzce and other manufacturing zones of Turkey, is initiating a unique pro-active strategy inside Turkey intended to deflect company resistance to union rights. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.petrol is president.JPG" width="217" height="201"/>
Petrol-İş President Mustafa Öztaşkin (right) at News Conference, with Nimetullah Sözen, Petrol-İş Organising Secretary
At a press conference in Düzce on 21 March that the ICEM participated in, Petrol-İş President Mustafa Öztaşkin stated, “We want to sit down at the negotiations table with Standard Profil and conduct a peaceful process of mutual understanding.” Labour relations, he added should “start with mutual good and consideration of mutual interests.” 
 
On 19 March, Turkey’s Labour and Social Security Ministry did formally confirm that Standard Profil staff work in Petrol-İş sectors. The company has 15 days to contest that verification and the message is that they do not. The governmental process is now underway to certify the union with majority interest from workers and that will likely be affirmed in a matter of weeks. Again, the message in Düzce and along Standard Profil’s supply chain is meet Petrol-İş at the bargaining table. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.petrol is standard profil. 2.jpg" width="323" height="185"/>
Union justification that Standard Profil not challenge unionisation at its 1,850-worker Düzce plant and a smaller but growing plant in the city of Bursa is furthered by the fact that the company has positively addressed freedom of association and given workplace rights training inside the plants. 
 
That came late in 2008 and early 2009 after Petrol-İş and its national labour centre, Türk-İş, lodged a complaint with the World Bank’s International Financial Corporation (IFC). The IFC and the accompanying Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) loaned the company development money, and criteria under that loan requires the company live up to social and environment standards. 
 
After assessment, a compliance office for IFC/MIGA determined that managers must undertake awareness and education efforts regarding labour rights and work conditions. At last week’s news conference, Öztaşkin reminded of that, emphasizing that the union stands ready and willing to make Standard Profil a quality, reliable, and globally-preferred supplier of automotive sealing systems. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.petrol is standard profil.jpg" width="172" height="170"/>
Union Organisers at Standard Profil, Ünal Akbulut and Hakan Koçak
The point was reinforced by letters presented at the press conference on behalf of the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/In%20Solidarity%20with%20Petrol-IS%20Workers%20at%20Standard%20Profil%20in%20Turkey%2018%20March%202011.pdf" type="internal">International Metalworkers Federation</a> (IMF), the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UAW%20Statement%20of%20Support%20.pdf " type="internal">United Auto Workers</a> (UAW) of the US, the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/2011-03-18_09-37-04.pdf" type="internal">Volkswagen Works Council</a> in Germany, and ICEM German affiliate <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/vl_160311_solistandardprofil.pdf " type="internal">IGBCE</a>. In the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/19.%20Solidarity%20with%20Petrol-Is%20on%20organizing%20efforts%20at%20Standard%20Profil.pdf " type="internal">ICEM’s letter</a>, General Secretary Manfred Warda called on Standard Profil to embark on a “peaceful and constructive labour relations atmosphere at your workplaces which will result in enhanced business performance.” 
 
Leaders of several textile, metal, and other regional trade unions also attended the news conference, lending their support to the Petrol-İş message. Standard Profil, owned by London-based Bancroft Private Equity LLP whose investments mostly are in Central Europe, supplies door, boot, engine cover, and other rubber seals to a number of auto firms. Its larger customers are General Motors, Volkswagen/Audi, Fiat, Ford, and Honda.

Petrol-İş Demands Immediate Recognition at Standard Profil in Turkey

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Co-hosted by two of ICEM’s Spanish affiliated trade unions, FIA-UGT and FITEQA-CC.OO, the ICEM World Women’s Conference brought together over 230 delegates from 47 countries to Seville on 23-25 March. The theme of the conference was “Conquests and Dreams.” 
 
The historic conference was the largest ever and women resolved to focus efforts on building and developing structures for improved coordination for the women of the ICEM. Coordinating committees already exist in some countries and this will now be extended to create a women’s committee in each country where there is more than one ICEM affiliate. This will then be followed with a women’s network in Europe, and several sub-regional networks. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.womens conf carol press.JPG" width="317" height="188"/>
Women’s Officer Carol Bruce talks to Spanish TV
ICEM women look forward to combining strength and resources with the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) in the creation of a new international trade union federation. While the three organizations have differing levels of women’s membership and activities, the ICEM women’s sector will work to combine the best practices. 
 
Two campaigns launched at the conference included: the campaign to put a stop to violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); and campaign for wider use of female condoms to prevent the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Two other major work plans will also receive increased focus: preventing violence against women and creating better self-esteem. 
 
View the full <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/EN%20resolution%20to%20ICEM%20Congress.pdf" type="internal">conference resolution</a> here.  
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.womens conf minute silence.JPG" width="367" height="164"/>
Delegates Respect Victims of Japan’s Earthquake/Tsunami
In his opening remarks, ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana called delegates to stand and mark a minute’s silence in memory of those affected by the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda then said, “Gender will be a major part of the ICEM Action Plan to be discussed at the Executive Committee and then at our Congress. We are proud of the work of the women inside the ICEM, marking this milestone conference.” 
 
The conference attracted local- and national-level female politicians. Matilde Fernández, former Social Affairs Minister, highlighted the importance of the fight for gender equality in Spain, a country where women are paid 15% less than men, meaning that they would have to work 51-52 days per year more than men to achieve wage parity. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.womens conf turkish woman.JPG" width="158" height="199"/>
Müzeyyen Acunal of Turkish Selüloz-İş
“Changes to legislation have been necessary, but they still are not sufficient,” she said. “We need to change the attitudes of the society.” 
 
The conference unanimously re-elected Russia’s Evgenia Esenina as President of ICEM’s Women’s Committee and Zimbabwe’s Angeline Chitambo as Vice-Chair. 
 
In closing the conference, President Senzeni Zokwana built enthusiasm for the future, in terms of gender work, and of the overall hopes heading into a new international. “We will be new and strong, let us breed unity, breed oneness. We can achieve more together!”

Largest Number Ever Attend ICEM Women’s Conference in Spain

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From: International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation. Note: On Friday, 25 March, ITGLWF General Secretary Patrick Itschert issued the following statement drawing parallel between New York City’s Triangle Shirtwaist fire to the 14 December 2010 Hameem garment factory in the Ashulia industrial zone of Dhaka, Bangladesh. 
 
To mark the hundredth anniversary of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, the global union representing workers in the garment industry is calling on employers, governments and brands sourcing in the global industry to take urgent action to improve worker safety. 
 
Says Patrick Itschert, General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation: “One hundred years ago today, at the Triangle shirtwaist factory in New York City, 146 workers died because greedy factory owners violated workers’ basic rights and ignored health and safety regulations, and the authorities turned a blind eye to these violations. 
 
“When a fire broke out on the ninth floor it spread quickly across an overcrowded factory floor. Young women workers scrambled to escape and found only locked or inadequate exits. Fire fighters were powerless to help because their ladders couldn’t reach beyond the fifth floor. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.garment factoy fire bangladesh.jpg" width="300" height="180"/>
“Nearly one hundred years later, in December 2010, the exact same scene was repeated at the Hameem factory in Dhaka, leaving 29 workers dead. Nor is Hameem an isolated incident in the Bangladesh garment industry. Over the past five years alone, some 150 workers have died in factory disasters in the garment industry in the country. Similar tragedies have occurred elsewhere throughout the global garment industry, notably in China and Thailand. All of these tragedies are eerily similar and all could have been prevented by safe working practices. 
 
“The ITGLWF is calling on employers, governments and brands to protect worker safety and to ensure that where workers are injured or killed, adequate compensation is paid.” 
 
Concludes Mr. Itschert: “The Triangle factory led to rapid growth of the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union and the introduction of tougher new laws. In Bangladesh and elsewhere, workers continue to be denied the right to organise and bargain collectively and are thus being denied the right to play a role in promoting health and safety. We must learn from the legacy of the Triangle factory fire and ensure this changes.”

ITGLWF Draws Match: 1911 New York Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and Hameem Fire in Bangladesh

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The United Steelworkers (USW) in North America has created a Unity Council around the Evraz Group, the world’s tenth largest steel producer that is controlled by holding companies connected to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. The steelworkers’ network was formed last week at meetings in the US, and initially will include USW local unions representing 2,600 workers in the western US and western Canada. 
 
The Unity Council is expected to expand globally with the help of ICEM and its coal-mining affiliate in Russia, trade unions in South Africa, and the assistance of the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and its affiliates at steel and related mills in Russia, Ukraine, Italy, and the Czech Republic. The company is also expanding in Kazakhstan. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.USW.Steve Hunt.jpg" width="100" height="132"/>    <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.USW.laventure[1].jpg" width="100" height="132"/>
Steve Hunt, Robert LaVenture
Formation of the council “is an important step in bringing workers together across borders to share information, strategies, and plans with respect to a common employer,” said Unity Council Chairman and USW Region 12 Director Robert LaVenture. “Workers across international boundaries know that they need to work together to balance our interests against powerful global companies like Evraz.” 
 
The USW represents workers at steel pipe and tubing mills in Pueblo, Colorado, and in Calgary, Alberta, and Regina, Saskatchewan. 
 
“Ultimately, we would like to see a worldwide group of Evraz workers that is able to meet regularly and work to ensure that the company’s workforce, regardless of country or nationality, is treated fairly and has strong union representation,” added USW Western Canadian Region Director Steve Hunt. 
 
Luxembourg-based Evraz has nine steel mills, five iron ore operations, several coal deposits, and other mine and mill operations, including Highveld Steel and Vanadium in South Africa. 
 
The ICEM’s familiarity with Evraz centres on the company’s major stakes in the Russian coking coal mines of Yuzhkuzbassugol and Raspadskaya, the latter one which saw 90 miners perish in a methane gas blast in May 2010. At Yuzhkuzbassugol, a similar explosion killed miners of ICEM affiliate Russian Independent Coal Miners’ Union (ROSUGLEPROF) in 2007. (See the <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3781-Russian-Mine-Disaster-Restates-Immediacy-for-ILO-Convention-176 " type="internal">2010 ICEM report</a> and the <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2273-Another-Coal-Mine-Blast-in-Russia’s-Kuzbass-Kills-39-Miners " type="internal">2007 ICEM report</a>.)

Steelworkers Form ‘Unity Council’ for Evraz Metal, Mine Workers

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The ICEM expressed satisfaction today that the Kumho Tyre subsidiary of Kumho Asiana Group lifted its eight-day lockout on 3,400 rubber workers, members of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU). Korea’s second biggest tyre maker locked out workers on 25 March at factories in Gwungju and Gokseong following a one-day warning strike. 
 
The lockout ended at 14h30 today. The company rescinded its demand that workers sign individual work agreements promising not to engage in further work stoppages. In return for lifting the lockout, the Kumho Tyre Workers’ Union said it would end its industrial actions in front of the two plants. 
 
The union executed the warning strike on 25 March because Kumho refused to engage in dialogue over relevant issues in the middle of a two-year labour agreement. Those issues included giving workplace union leaders the right to maintain their union representation duties while on the job, revisions to severance packages, and health factors inside the factories. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4347-Warning-Strike-Leads-to-Lockout-at-Kumho-Tyre-Factories-in-Korea" type="internal">ICEM report</a> from 28 March.) 
 
In lifting the lockout, the Kumho Tyre Workers’ Union recognised the company’s fragile financial and market situation. The ICEM is encouraged that the two sides engaged in meaningful dialogue to end the mid-term dispute.

Kumho Tyre Lifts Lockout on Metal Workers Union in Korea

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 67, April 2011 

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