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The second union-wide Conference for the Electric Power Industry was held in Boston USA on 12-13 July, with 60 delegates from 19 countries attending. The ICEM conference was aptly hosted by the Utility Workers&rsquo; Union of America (UWUA), which turned out delegates from several electric power branch unions. 
 
Delegates adopted a strong statement condemning recent trends in electric power that prioritise profit-making at the expense of the public good. The statement said unions must continue to promote democratic energy policies, and noted, &ldquo;Increased globalisation in the Electric Power sector necessitates increased international contacts between unions in the parent multinational country with unions in the countries subject to new investments by these companies.&rdquo; (The full ICEM Electric Power <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/1Conclusions%20of%20ICEM%20World%20Conference%20for%20the%20Electric%20Power%20Industry%20Boston%20July%2012.pdf">Conference conclusions</a> can be viewed here.)&nbsp;
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Denryoku Soren&rsquo;s Manabu Sasaki
A highlight of the event was a thorough presentation on the work done to save the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant station in Japan following the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. Members of the ICEM-affiliated Federation of Electric Power Related Industry Workers&rsquo; Union of Japan, or Denryoku Soren, gave heart-rendering descriptions of their work to cool down reactors after the tsunami cut power to the northeast Japan power station. 
 
The union&rsquo;s policy officer, Takashi Wakasugi, who hails from Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), said that no one has died from radiation exposure at Fukushima, although two young workers were trapped and killed by the tsunami in the turbine building basement of the 4th reactor. That reactor was on a maintenance shutdown at the time. Eleven Denryoku Soren members and another 180 family members lost their lives away from the plant and over 6,000 homes of union members have been destroyed. 
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NUM Education Chairperson Helen Diatile Inspired Delegates for Greater Solidarity
Since mid-March, the union has dispatched some 3,500 volunteers from Denryoku Soren in aid and rescue missions. The Japanese unionists, including Kiyoaki Kotabe and Manabu Sasaki, stressed that the natural disaster also affected coal-fired power stations in Fukushima Prefecture, including the Haramachi power plant where some workers were killed. Nuclear power, Sasaki said, accounts for less than 30% of Japan&rsquo;s power mix. With total electric supply decreasing to 55% after the twin natural disasters, the bulk of the loss came from outages at coal- oil- and gas-fired plants. 
 
The unionists were critical of Japan&rsquo;s current government administration for laying blame on the utilities and on workers. They said the government insists on imposing indemnity on the affected utilities, and has submitted a bill to Parliament that ultimately would encourage layoffs of Denryoku Soren members and the lowering of working conditions to the bare minimum. 
 
&ldquo;We at Denryoku Soren will continue to fight to stabilise the situation at Fukushima Daiichi,&rdquo; stated Sasaki, the union&rsquo;s Social and Industrial Policy Officer. &ldquo;We will face all predicaments bravely to secure the safety of the Japanese people and by all and any means, we will restore and revitalize East Japan, which suffered devastating damage. 
 
&ldquo;What has supported us while we fight for this has been the strong solidarity by the member unions of the ICEM.&rdquo; 
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UWUA President Mike Langford
The Electric Conference also included panels on campaigning and on networking, with the latter including the ICEM&rsquo;s Asia-Pacific Electric Power Workers&rsquo; Network by Japanese Affiliates&rsquo; Federation (JAF) General Secretary Yoshio Sato, the Nuclear Workers&rsquo; Network by David Shier, and an inspired presentation by&nbsp;Ndlela Radebe of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on the newly created Southern Africa Energy Network. 
 
Campaign presentations were made by UWUA Local 389 President Dave Leonardi on the successful UWUA-ICEM campaign to achieve a first collective agreement with waste-to-energy company Covanta in the US, and on privatisation fight-backs by David Black of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees (COPE) in British Colombia and by Saffet Asiksou and Huseyln Sonmezoglu of the Turkish Electricity Authority of Cyprus Workers&rsquo; Union (El-Sen). 
 
UWUA President Mike Langford also directly addressed the &ldquo;virus&rdquo; of the US that is slowly permeating both developed and developing nations of the world, and said trade unions must rise up to unite against such &ldquo;anti-people, anti-society practices.&rdquo;

ICEM’s Electric Conference Condemns Profiteering by Private-Sector Providers

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The two-week strike by 120,000 members of the National Union of Metalworkers&rsquo; of South Africa (NUMSA) ended over the weekend when union members accepted a three-year contract from the Steel and Engineering Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA), the main metal employers&rsquo; federation in South Africa. 
 
NUMSA members will receive a first-year pay rise of 10% effective 1 July 2011. In the second and third years, metalworkers will receive no less than 8% in each year. If the consumer price index (CPI) is less than that percentage, the 8% increases will take hold; if it exceeds 8%, workers will receive 2% above the CPI. 
 
&ldquo;We ran a successful action,&rdquo; NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim said of the strike that began 4 July. &ldquo;We applied excellent pressure, workers were firm in their determination, and the timing for settling was good before the country&rsquo;s economy was bruised.&rdquo; 
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NUMSA Manifestation on 12 July
Jim said another fundamental issue resolved concerned labour brokers. Contract language was improved whereby labour brokers are allowed to deploy workers for only a four-month period. If a labour broker is retained for more than that period that broker&rsquo;s workers will win full-time, permanent positions with the primary employer inclusive of all social benefits. Workers will begin returning to jobs today and tomorrow, 19 July. 
 
Meanwhile, talks between the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union (CEPPWAWU) and several employers&rsquo; federations resume today. Some 70,000 CEPPWAWU members have been striking since 11 July against scores of employers in the petroleum, pharmaceutical, glass, plastics, industrial chemicals, fast-moving consumer goods, and pulp, paper, and wood products sectors. 
 
By far the biggest impact of those strikes has been in petroleum distribution businesses. The CEPPWAWU strike there has created panic buying and fuel shortages, with the seven members of the South African Petroleum Industry Association unable to move supplies to market from the country&rsquo;s 130 fuel depots.
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CEPPWAWU Members March in Johannesburg, 11 July
CEPPWAWU&rsquo;s strikes were joined last week across several sectors by 14,000 members of the South African Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union (SACWU) and 10,000 members of the General Industrial Workers&rsquo; Union of South Africa (GIWUSA). 
 
The unions are seeking wage increases ranging from 11% to 13%, while respective industries are offering only 6.5% to 7%. ICEM-affiliated CEPPWAWU seeks a complete ban on labour brokers, a minimum month wage of R6,000 (&euro;615), six months paid maternity leave, and a 40-hour work-week. 
 
The strike, specifically in regard to fuel shortages and transport, is expected to be exacerbated starting today with the start of the third trimester of school in South Africa. Some of the companies affected are petrol giants BP Southern Africa, Chevron SA, Engen Petroleum, PetroSA, Shell SA, and Total SA; pharmaceutical companies Adcock Ingram, Aspen Pharmaceutical, and Pharmacare; consumer companies Revlon and Colgate; the industrial chemicals company Sasol, as well as Nampak Glass and paper companies Sappi and Mondi. 
 
South African strikes were amplified this winter by a PricewaterhouseCoopers&rsquo; report showing that executive pay trends of the 40 top-listed companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange saw median pay increases of 23.3%, while executive bonuses rose 56%.

Metal Strike Ends in South Africa; CEPPWAWU Resumes Talks Today

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A branch of ICEM Indonesian affiliate FSP-KEP (SPSI), the Trade Union of Chemical, Energy, and Mine Workers (CEMWU), ended an eight-day strike on 13 July against US-based Freeport-McMoRan at the Grasberg copper and gold mine in eastern Papua province on New Guinea Island. Some 10,000 of the mine&rsquo;s 18,000 workers downed tools on 4 July after management refused to hear wage demands of the PT Freeport branch of FSP-KEP, instead firing six trade union leaders. 
 
In the negotiated end to the strike that included the union, managers, and local government representatives, Freeport-McMoRan agreed to reinstate the six with backpay for duration of the strike and to also pay the 10,000 strikers their wages over the eight days. 
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4 July March to Kuala Kencana
Grasberg Managing Director Armando Mahler also agreed to fully recognise the democratically-elected leaders of PT Freeport, and to commence full negotiations toward a new collective agreement on 20 July. Union miners are seeking a doubling of their pay from the equivalent of US$1.50 per hour to US$3. Of Freeport-McMoRan&rsquo;s eight global mining enterprises, Grasberg is the company&rsquo;s biggest profit contributor, but also pays the lowest salaries. 
 
The company said it was losing US$23 million per day due to the strike. In the opening day of the strike, thousands of miners marched from Timika city to Kuala Kencana, the company&rsquo;s mining town complex, where they were met by hostility from company security teams. 
 
Grasberg is the world&rsquo;s largest gold mine and third largest copper mine. The open-cast mining operations sit atop a peak of the Puncak Jaya, Indonesia&rsquo;s highest mountain. The company has a history there of providing only a small fraction of revenues for development, which in part has caused political friction between ethnic Melanesian Papuans and the Indonesian provincial and federal government authorities. 
 
In non-related Indonesian news regarding the 2004 Social Security law, a key ruling was made by the National Court of Central Jakarta on 13 July. The court found the Indonesian President, Vice-President, eight Ministers, and the Head of Parliament all guilty of failing to implement the national law. The court called on the defendants to implement the legislation immediately. 
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National Court, Central Jakarta
The law represents a significant step towards improving the lives of ordinary people in Indonesia. However, the government of General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has failed to properly implement the legislation. The Social Security law demands programmes to cover five major policy areas: health insurance, employment injury, old-age, pensions, and death benefits. Employers are obliged to enroll their employees in the Social Security schemes and to jointly pay the contributions. 
 
The three large national trade union confederations KSPI, KSPSI, and KSBSI are united in support of this important reform legislation. A final decision is expected to be made on 22 July.

Indonesia Mine Union Wins Strike, Reinstatement of Sacked Union Leaders

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The global ICEM family last week congratulated the victory by South Africa&rsquo;s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to block Brazilian mining group Vale&rsquo;s efforts to invest in the country, and to operate elsewhere in the region. Vale&rsquo;s anti-union behaviour throughout the world, most notably against the United Steelworkers (USW) in Canada, led NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni to describe the company as &ldquo;one of the world&rsquo;s leading labour exploiters.&rdquo; 
 
The base-metals mining company Metorex, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, had been a long-term acquisition target for Vale. The South Africa-based miner has extensive copper and cobalt mining operations, and prospective growth projects, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in Zambia. 
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Frans Baleni
The announcement that Vale were pulling out of the Metorex bid, due to strong pressure from the union, was welcome news on 12 July. If the mining multinational had continued its pursuit, NUM was set to challenge the takeover in the South African Competition Commission. 
 
The alternative bidder for Metorex, the Chinese company Jinchuan, also has a negative labour relations history and is not being welcomed by the NUM. The defeat of Vale will give a stark warning to Jinchuan of the NUM&rsquo;s strength. Baleni warned Jinchuan that &ldquo;when in South Africa, do as South Africans do.&rdquo; 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda congratulated Baleni on the victory, describing it as &ldquo;another example of the strength of Africa&rsquo;s predominant trade union.&rdquo; 
 
Jinchuan has offered R 9.1 billion (&euro;930 million) for Metorex, and the company&rsquo;s board has recommended that shareholders accept the offer.

NUM Succeeds in Blocking Vale’s Bid for Metorex in Southern Africa

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The <a href="/en/219-5th-statutory-congress">website</a> for the Fifth ICEM Statutory Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 24-26 November 2011 is now live.&nbsp; 
 
The site will be a source of information for Congress delegates and others in the lead-up to Congress and during the event, available in the seven statutory languages of the ICEM plus Turkish. 
 
A live video feed of the event in Buenos Aires will be broadcast on the site, and sections will include practical information for participants, Congress News, the Congress Work Plan, submitted and passed resolutions, documents and speeches, the Secretariat Report, and information regarding the Contract and Agency Labour Conference of 23 November. 
 
Congress is the supreme authority of the International and meets once every four years to set policy and elect its officers. The Fifth ICEM Statutory Congress will bring around 900 participants from all over the world. The Congress will be held at the Hilton Hotel, Buenos Aires. 
 
Affiliated unions must submit motions for consideration at Congress to the Secretariat before Friday 22 July, 2011. 
 
Colleagues requiring a visa to travel to Argentina are requested to return their participation forms to the Secretariat immediately, as the process can take several months.

ICEM Congress Website Live

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As with CEPPWAWU, the National Union of Metalworkers' of South Africa (NUMSA) has today begun strike action following a failure of negotiations with the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA). NUMSA has lowered its demand for a 20 per cent salary increase, to 13 per cent, however SEIFSA only offered 7 per cent, and refused to seriously negotiate the other key NUMSA demand for labour brokers to be banned in all companies with NUMSA members employed. 
 
Further NUMSA demands include a two-year wage agreement, as opposed to three years sought by employers, a one-day medical test for all workers, a five-day family responsibility leave per occurrence, and a 20 per cent night shift allowance. 
 
Talks between NUMSA and the Metal and Engineering Industry Sectors Bargaining Council ended on Thursday with a certificate of non-resolution being issued, paving the way for a strike. 
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The indefinite mass countrywide action is likely to include upwards of 300,000 workers. David Carson, executive director of SEIFSA, responded to impending strike action on Thursday, declaring 48 hours&rsquo; notice before initiating lockouts at various firms. 
 
Strikers convened at the Workers&rsquo; Library in Johannesburg from 9am today. Led by NUMSA General Secretary Irwin Jim and the general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), Zwelinzima Vavi, workers marched to submit a memorandum at Metal Industries House on Anderson Street in Johannesburg. 
 
Demonstrations also took place in Port Elizabeth, Cape Town and East London. A march in Northern Cape will take place tomorrow. 
 
Employer&rsquo;s regressive demands in the failed negotiations included protecting their right to outsource work via labour brokers, introducing incredibly low entry level salaries, increasing the working week from 40 hours to 45, and exempting companies with fewer than 50 employees from many of their responsibilities towards workers.

South African Metalworkers&#039; Strike

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South African ICEM affiliate, the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) representing over 70,000 workers begins strike action today in the petroleum, pharmaceutical, industrial chemicals, tissue and allied industries, and plastics industries, as employers continue to stone-wall negotiations for the period 2011-2012. 
 
The Strategic Committee of CEPPWAWU met on 23 June and decided unanimously to strike during the week of 4 July 2011. CEPPWAWU members today, 4 July 2011 are joining NUMSA in the national strike in the MEIBC (Metal and Engineering) sectors. 
 
Negotiations have been deadlocked with employers on wages and conditions in three national bargaining councils - the National Bargaining Council for Chemical Industries, National Bargaining Council for the Wood and Paper Sectors and the Metal Engineering Industries Bargaining Councils. 
<img src="" width="150" height="146" alt="" />
CEPPWAWU&rsquo;s demands include a wage rise of 11-13 per cent across the board, a minimum wage of R6 000 (615 Euros) monthly, annual wage discussions, outsourced and temporary workers to become permanently employed, plus various sector specific social demands including on housing, transport, and maternity benefits. 
 
Employers are offering 4 per cent and 7 per cent, an offer that CEPPWAWU describes as an &ldquo;insult&rdquo; to workers. Union negotiators point to discrepancies between the official rate of inflation, 4.6 per cent, and the real inflation of living costs, as the price of basic items has risen dramatically over the last two years. 
 
In last year&rsquo;s negotiations workers made sacrifices as the country was badly affected by the global recession. This year some employers are seeking to extend those concessions. 
 
CEPPWAWU has asked the South African public to be patient during the strike, as it will result in shortages of drugs in hospitals, of fuel, paper, chemicals. CEPPWAWU remains committed to dialogue towards a solution. 
 
The strike was able to be legally launched today after an attempt by employers of the Plastics Converters Association (PCA) failed in the Gauteng Labour Court, with the judge ruling the strike legal and ordering the PCA to pay legal costs. 
 
An eleventh hour bid to interdict a strike by workers in the metals and plastics sectors failed on Friday, when the Labour Court turned down an application from the Plastics Converters Association (PCA) and ordered it to pay costs.

CEPPWAWU Downs Tools in Demand for Living Wage

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ICEM&rsquo;s Turkish affiliate Sel&uuml;loz-Is, Pulp, Paper and Products Workers&rsquo; Union has been picketing in front of the plant of Form Mukavva Ambalaj Sanayi ve Ticaret Ltd.Şti located in Torbali, close to the country&rsquo;s third biggest city Izmir. The Sel&uuml;loz-Is picket-line is in protest over the dismissals of sixteen union members by the Turkish-based cardboard packaging company Form Mukavva following recent successful organising drives of the union which lasted several months.
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Sel&uuml;loz-Is applied to the Ministry of Labour on 9 May 2011 for the authorisation documentation showing that the union organises more than the legally-required 50% of workers at the workplace. The Ministry sent the authorisation paper, confirming the union&rsquo;s majority. At the time of the application to the Ministry, Sel&uuml;loz-Is had much more than the legally required minimum 50% registered union members. But when the management received the paper from the Ministry, they first filed a case at local labour court claiming that the union did not hold the required legal majority to become a bargaining partner, a common tactic by employers in Turkey for union de-recognition, subsequently 16 pioneering members of Sel&uuml;loz-Is were kicked out on 20 June 2011. Since then Sel&uuml;loz-Is has conducted industrial action calling for the reinstatement of those dismissed workers and for union recognition. The action is receiving wide support from the families of workers and the local community. 
 
&ldquo;The reason for the dismissal of our members was that they enjoyed trade union rights guaranteed by the country&rsquo;s constitution&rdquo; said Ergin Alşan, President of Sel&uuml;loz-Is. &ldquo;We vehemently protest dismissals of our members because of their joining our union. We clearly announce that our struggle will continue until our members are reinstated&rdquo; added Alşan.
<img src="" width="146" height="110" alt="" />
President Ergin Alşan
In his letter to Yılmaz Mineli, Owner and General Director of Form Mukavva, the ICEM General Secretary urged the company that sixteen dismissed workers must be immediately reinstated without delay. &ldquo;This targeted and systematic attack by your management to block your employees from exercising their right to organise and bargain collectively will cause much anger. We expect the hindrance of union rights at Form Mukavva Ambalaj in Turkey to be solved without further intervention&rdquo; added Warda. 
 
ICEM&rsquo;s <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/65.ICEM.Form%20Mukavva%20Ambalaj.Turkey.27June.pdf">protest letter</a> can be found here. Support letters to Sel&uuml;loz-Is can be sent to <a href="mailto:selulozis@selulozis.org.tr">selulozis@selulozis.org.tr</a>.

Turkey’s Selüloz-Is struggles for recognition at Form Mukavva

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In New Zealand over the weekend, ICEM joined host union, Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia in calling for recovery of the bodies of 29 miners killed inside Pike River Coal Ltd.&rsquo;s colliery. The unions want the miners&rsquo; remains returned to families before the mine is sold and reopened. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, ICEM Japanese Affiliates Federation (JAF) General Secretary Yoshio Sato, and Asia-Pacific Regional Contact Person Phee Jungsun joined EPMU leaders on 1 July in making the demand at Greymouth and then again the next day at the Pike River mine in New Zealand. 
<img alt="" src="" width="183" height="159" />
At a press briefing in Greymouth, the trade unionists said it was morally irresponsible for New Zealand&rsquo;s government to allow the trustee of the mine, PricewaterhouseCoopers, to sell the mine and allow production to begin before bodies are recovered. The unionists also met with families of the deceased miners, their representative Bernie Monk, and Greymouth District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn, who is adamant that victims&rsquo; families get a full accounting of events of the November 2010 methane gas explosions. 
 
The ICEM delegation on 2 July laid a wreath in memory of the 29 at the Pike River colliery, New Zealand&rsquo;s largest underground mine laden with seams of premium metallurgical coal under the Paparoa Range of the South Island. 
 
On 19 November 19, a horrid methane gas blast killed 29 miners, including 11 members of ICEM affiliate EPMU. It was the worst New Zealand mine disaster in 119 years, killing 24 Kiwi nationals, two Australians, two UK citizens, and one South African. A subsequent explosion occurred on 24 November, after which authorities declared the miners dead, and in the days that followed two further explosions occurred. 
<img alt="" src="" width="196" height="160" />
Warda lays wreath
&ldquo;Mine workers have a special bond with one another and we will use our influence globally to assure that production at Pike River does not re-start until the bodies are recovered,&rdquo; said Warda. 
 
EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little and Assistant National Secretary Ged O&rsquo;Connell were part of the delegation. Little said New Zealand&rsquo;s government must be mindful that the Pike River catastrophe had reverberations world-wide, highlighting the nation&rsquo;s lax mine-safety regulations. 
 
O&rsquo;Connell said recovery of miners&rsquo; bodies remains a priority for the EPMU. The trustee or prospective owners, he said, &ldquo;must have a recovery plan for those bodies to the satisfaction of the families before they consider mining coal, or making money out of that mine.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="215" height="161" />
Name badges of those miners still to be recovered from the mine
PricewaterhouseCoopers became receiver of the mine in January after Pike River Coal Ltd., an enterprise previously owned by New Zealand Oil &amp; Gas Ltd. with minority stakes held by Indian and Asia steel-making concerns, filed for bankruptcy due to the tragedy. The mine ramped up to full production only in 2010. It contains reserves of 17.6 million tones of hard coking coal. 
 
PricewaterhouseCoopers had hoped to sell the mine&rsquo;s assets by June, but a possible sale has now been pushed backed until later in the year. Meanwhile, a Royal Commission conducting an inquiry into the search and rescue attempts, and the safety and government regulatory policies surrounding the Pike River tragedy. The Commission held a preliminary hearing in Greymouth on 5 April (see <a href="/en/97-Sustainable-Development-Health-and-Safety/4385-Royal-Commission-Convenes-over-Pike-River-New-Zealand-Mine-Deaths ">ICEM report</a> here), and will begin full proceedings on 11 July. 
 
Prior to visiting the South Island and the Pike River mine site, the ICEM delegation laid a wreath in the city of Christchurch near the Canterbury Television site in memory of a Turkish student, 31-year-old Didem Yaman, who was killed there by an earthquake earlier this year. She is the niece of a member of ICEM-affiliated Petrol-Is in Turkey.

New Zealand: ICEM Wants Bodies Recovered from Inside Deadly Pike River Mine

<div> 
<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" /></div>
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) voiced fierce opposition to government&rsquo;s decision to bail out the authoritarian and illegitimate Swaziland rule of King Mswati III. On 3 August, South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced a R2.4 billion (US$354 million, &euro;259 million) loan to the repressive regime to offset revenue shortfalls from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).
&ldquo;This decision by the South African government to give King Mswati&rsquo;s regime a financial bail-out is a direct assault on our solidarity efforts to free and liberate the people of Swaziland from this hyena&rsquo;s tyranny,&rdquo; said NUMSA in a statement, making direct reference to Mozambique&rsquo;s 1987 Nkomati Accord with South Africa&rsquo;s apartheid regime.
Then, African National Congress (ANC) President Oliver Tambo said &ldquo;our brothers and sisters in Mozambique have hugged and kissed the most hated hyena in the world.&rdquo;
The South African loan to Mswati&rsquo;s absolute monarchy comes when all political parties have been banned, trade unionists are jailed, and a bureaucracy surrounding Mswati that has proven corrupt and ineffectual in tending to the needs of the impoverished country of 1.2 million. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party also oppose the loan.
<img alt="" src="" width="250" height="115" />
<div>Swaziland had gone to the European Union, the African Development Bank, and the World Bank for loans but turned down Africa&rsquo;s last absolute monarchy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has refused to extend credit for what it calls blatant irresponsibility in handling budgetary processes.</div>
The first instalment of South Africa&rsquo;s loan is to be paid out late this month, the second in October and the final in February 2012. South Africa is to recoup payment over five years through Swaziland&rsquo;s share of SACU revenue sharing. 
Although there are some conditional requirements to the loan, none are readily transparent. Vague &ldquo;confidence-building measures&rdquo; by the Swazi regime, adherence to fiscal and technical reforms by the IMF (reforms that failed in past loans), and capacity-building support by the South African government are listed as those conditions.
COSATU was point-blank in its assessment of South Africa&rsquo;s loan: &ldquo;So long as there are no strict conditions to compel the regime to concede democratic reforms and to share the country&rsquo;s wealth among the people, the loan will simply be used to perpetuate the status quo. Mswati&rsquo;s lavish lifestyle and the royal family&rsquo;s extravagance, impunity and lack of accountability will continue unabated, while the conditions of misery for the majority get even worse.&rdquo;
NUMSA said the loan essentially squanders the &ldquo;hard-earned money generated through taxes&rdquo; of South Africans while continuing Mswati&rsquo;s &ldquo;order to unleash state terror and starve the people of Swaziland.&rdquo;

NUMSA Opposed to South Africa’s Non-Transparent Swaziland Loan

Archive

ICEM’s Electric Conference Condemns Profiteering by Private-Sector Providers

Metal Strike Ends in South Africa; CEPPWAWU Resumes Talks Today

Indonesia Mine Union Wins Strike, Reinstatement of Sacked Union Leaders

NUM Succeeds in Blocking Vale’s Bid for Metorex in Southern Africa

ICEM Congress Website Live

South African Metalworkers' Strike

CEPPWAWU Downs Tools in Demand for Living Wage

Turkey’s Selüloz-Is struggles for recognition at Form Mukavva

New Zealand: ICEM Wants Bodies Recovered from Inside Deadly Pike River Mine

NUMSA Opposed to South Africa’s Non-Transparent Swaziland Loan

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