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In the first bi-lateral bargain since a 2006 binding government-arbitrated labour agreement, 420 offshore oil workers on the Hibernia platform in the North Atlantic scored a remarkable first-year pay gain in a four-year contract through their union, the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada. 
 
The oil workers, employed by 14 separate oil-servicing companies under a common labour agreement led by ExxonMobil-controlled Hibernia Management Development Corp., won a minimum 8% pay gain and adjustment that is retroactive to 1 July 2009. 
 
The first-year increase actually ranges from 4.5% to 12.5%, but for workers employed by companies on the platform in which the negotiated backpay increase was 4.5% to 7%, a lump sum payment was negotiated bringing the total pay gain to 8%. Noble Drilling, Weatherford Wellhead, Schlumberger Ltd., and Petroleum Geo-Services are just a few of the 14 companies that are signatory to CEP Local 2121&rsquo;s common agreement. 
 
In the second (2010), third, and fourth years of the contract, offshore workers will see wage increases equal to what the CEP negotiated in its national energy and chemicals pattern agreement in Canada. Those increases are 2.5%, 3%, and 3.25%. 
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CEP National Representative Brian Campbell
&ldquo;We recouped in retroactive pay what the arbitration award did not give us,&rdquo; said CEP National Representative Brian Campbell, referring to a 38-month initial agreement delivered through first-contract arbitration by the Labour Ministry of the province of Labrador/Newfoundland. 
 
&ldquo;There were some workers who were underpaid in the arbitration deal,&rdquo; Campbell added, &ldquo;and the 2009 pay gains and lump sums adjust that.&rdquo; Campbell said other highlights of the new contract, approved by a 68% vote following a final ratification meeting on 5 November, includes increased day rates for salaried workers and a first-ever supplementary paid vacation. 
 
Four of the service companies operate with salaried staff, and the day rate &ndash; or actual work days on the rig &ndash; was increased in the second and fourth years. Hibernia staff work a 21-day on, 21-day off schedule, and the new vacation scheme will allow workers to take a total 63-day hiatus each year. 
 
Hibernia is located 315 kilometres southeast of St. John&rsquo;s, Newfoundland. It is 33.1% owned by ExxonMobil, 26.9% by Chevron, 20% by Suncor Energy, 8.5% by the government&rsquo;s Canadian Hibernia Holdings, 6.5% by Murphy Oil, and 5% by Statoil. In early November, reserve estimates of Hibernia&rsquo;s fields were adjusted upward by 12% to show a reservoir of 1.395 billion barrels of oil. 
 
In the offshore waters of North America, including the Gulf of Mexico, only two platforms are unionised &ndash; Hibernia and Terra Nova, also off Labrador/Newfoundland. Oil workers there are also represented by CEP Local 2121. The 180 workers of Terra Nova, in which the licensed operator is Canadian-based Suncor, are in the early stages of renewal bargaining on a contract which expired 1 October 2010. 
 
Besides Suncor, which owns 34% of Terra Nova through its 2009 purchase of PetroCanada, other stakeholders include ExxonMobil (22%), Statoil (15%), Husky Energy (12.5%), Murphy Oil (10%), Mosbacher (3.5%), and Chevron (1%).

High Pay Gains Mark Hibernia Offshore Pact for CEP Members

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Leading negotiations from exile in Canada, General Secretary of ICEM-affiliate Los Mineros of Mexico, Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia achieved wage gains for four locals of the union. Direct salaries were increased by 8% in each, apart from Section 269 in Guerrero, Mexico, where Los Mineros members saw their overall income increase 10%. 
 
The negotiations were conducted in direct dialogue with company management, with no involvement by the Federal Ministry of Labour, a further indication that the Ministry is not regarded as able to fulfil its role as a fair adjudicator. 
 
The 10% gains for Section 269 were achieved through bargaining with Canadian-owned Gold Corp, a producer of gold and silver. Direct salaries were increased 8% and additional social benefits were improved by 2%, including scholarships for workers&rsquo; children, among other advantages. 
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Los Mineros General Secretary Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia
The 8% salary increases were achieved for members of Fraction 1 of Section 269 with employer Mineral Raw Materials in Puebla; members of Section 247, Western Jalisco, at Minera El Pilon; members of Section 16 in Coahuila, employed by coal producer Industrial Materials; and members of Section 274 at the Port of L&aacute;zaro C&aacute;rdenas at the Sadcom de Occidente company. 
 
The ICEM salutes these significant advances by Los Mineros for its members, in the face of continuing persecution by the government of Felipe Calder&oacute;n. 
 
Elsewhere in Mexico, last week the ICEM-affiliated United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) launched a legal campaign, calling on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHCHR) to investigate the continuing violation of Mexican workers&rsquo; rights to free association. The UE, together with the National Lawyers Guild and Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers, are soliciting letters of support from labour, legal organizations, and law firms. See more <a href="http://www.nlginternational.org/action/current.php#134">here</a>.&nbsp; 
 
The letters will be filed to coincide with the 100th Anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, on 20 November. 
 
View the ICEM&rsquo;s letter <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/138.ICEM.Mexico.OHCHR.15Nov.pdf">here</a>, which can serve as a model letter.

Mexico’s Los Mineros Achieves Wage Gains Despite Persecution

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The copper-mining strike by 1,551 members of Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi in Chile enters its second week today, with miners emboldened by both fervent loyalty among union ranks and knowledge that company rhetoric concerning ongoing production is a deception for the benefit of world copper markets. 
 
The company is Do&ntilde;a Ines de Collahuasi, the world&rsquo;s fourth largest copper producer, owned by global mining giants Xstrata and AngloAmerican, with a smaller share held by Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsui &amp; Co. 
 
Since the strike began on 5 November, the Collahuasi Workers&rsquo; Union has been united in a stand that most assuredly will bring them a fair share of the mine&rsquo;s profits and more importantly, improved social provisions for their families. The ICEM has pledged global support to the union (see <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/19%20Collahuasi%20ICEM%2013%20Nov.b.pdf">letter in Spanish</a>)&nbsp;and commends Chilean mining unions for doing the same inside the South American nation. 
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Just One of the Daily Manifestations in Iquique
The union asked management to resume negotiations last week but the company refused, saying it would not re-enter talks without assistance from government mediators. 
 
Even though Do&ntilde;a Ines de Collahuasi managers say publicly the open-cast Rosario mine is operating normally under a strike contingency plan, union spokesman Luis Espinoza Garrido told the ICEM the fallacious contingency plan consists of 300 scab workers from outsource companies providing output of no more than 18% of total production. 
 
&ldquo;Three hundred inexperienced workers cannot do the work of 1,550 miners,&rdquo; said Espinoza. &ldquo;This is unsustainable and the company will come to realise this.&rdquo; 
 
Espinoza said the strike is about far more than just pay and bonuses. He said key issues include health benefits, education for miners&rsquo; children, and work schedules. Considering Collahuasi vast profits &ndash; net earnings last year totalled US$ 1.56 billion &ndash; the union wants company-paid health costs raised from the current 80% to 100% and education costs hiked from 50% to 100%. 
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Strikers are Living in Santa Mar&iacute;a School
A major concern is the health of miners. The Collahuasi mine, located in the Atacama desert in Chile&rsquo;s remote Region I, finds miners working at an altitude of 4,000 metres where oxygen levels are low and stress levels on the body are high. A US$750 million mine expansion is also underway that will lift production from 550,000 tonnes per year to a million tonnes annually, with altitudes expected to reach 5,000 metres in new mining areas. 
 
Another concern is silicosis. Because of massive dust clouds at the mine containing crystalline silica particles, miners are endangered by the deadly lung disease. 
 
Miners work seven days on, seven days off, and a further point of contention is management&rsquo;s proposed changes to exceptional days off. 
 
Since day one of the strike, most of the 1,551 strikers have taken up residency in the shuttered Santa Mar&iacute;a School in the Pacific port city of Iquique, 285 kilometres from the mine. In Iquique, both Do&ntilde;a Ines de Collahuasi managers and local governmental authorities siding with management accuse squatting miners of displacing the activities of youngsters. 
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Strikers Watch Children&rsquo;s Sports Class Activities at School
In fact, the opposite is true. Strikers are encouraging children&rsquo;s activities and yesterday, 14 November, the union held a community cultural event in the closed school. 
 
The Collahuasi Workers&rsquo; Union has taken their protests to the streets of Iquique each and every day. On 11 October, 800 strikers occupied the offices of the company in Iquique, headquarters for the company, and have protested at a company molybdenum plant just south of there in the port town of Patache. 
 
On 10 October, mine union leaders from BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto&rsquo;s Escondida copper mine, BHP&rsquo;s Spence and Cerro Colorado mines, Canadian Aur Resources Quebrado Blanca mine, Xstrata&rsquo;s Lomas Bayas mine, Canadian Castle Rock Resources Sierra Miranda mine, and Chile&rsquo;s Minera Cerro Dominador conducted a manifestation with the striking Collahuasi miners at the Santa Mar&iacute;a School.

Miners Dig In at Chile’s Collahuasi Copper Strike

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In the 19 days since 29 miners were pronounced dead in New Zealand&rsquo;s worst mine disaster in 114 years, recovery of the remains of those that perished is still far off, and Pike River Coal Ltd. has given redundancy notices to 90 full-time workers. 
 
That happened on 8 December. 
 
Pike River has already severed its relationship with 70 contract workers at the coking coal mine near Atarua on the west coast of the South Island. 
 
Meanwhile, police and Labour Ministry interviews of Pike River workers over mine safety became contentious when the company insisted on having its lawyers sit in on the interviews. The Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) objected to that, saying it might inhibit the investigation into criminal liability. 
 
&ldquo;We have objected &ndash; it&rsquo;s a clear conflict of interest,&rdquo; said EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little. &ldquo;Police are looking for criminal liability among workers or management &ndash; or both. It&rsquo;s improper for the company to be represented by lawyers in those interviews.&rdquo; 
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EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little
Pike River issued the mandatory four-week layoff notices to its permanent staff last week, meaning that 90 miners will not get paid beyond mid-January. Pike River Coal Ltd. has already launched a commercial feasibility study assessing whether or not it will continue mining the rich Brunner coal seam, but investors say it will take NZ$200 million to re-start the mine. 
 
But it&rsquo;s estimated that it could still take several weeks &ndash; or months &ndash; before the remains of the dead miners are recovered. A local coroner has visited relatives of the deceased to get DNA samples, indicating the difficulty that lies ahead to identify the 29. 
 
The initial 19 November methane gas blast at the Paparoa Range mine most likely killed all 29 miners. Following a subsequent explosion on 24 November, the miners were declared dead. In the days that followed, two further explosions occurred, with coal-stoked fires raging deep in the horizontal shafts of the mine until the middle of last week. 
 
On 29 November, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced formation of a three-member Royal Commission of Inquiry to determine causes of the tragedy. That Commission, headed by High Court Justice Graham Panckhurst, with two international mine safety experts on it, will be given broad latitude and it could take up to two years to assemble findings. In the meantime, area police, the Labour Ministry, and the EPMU will conduct separate investigations. 
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NZ Congress of Trade Unions President Helen Kelly with Ian Murray and Tim Whyte, CFMEU Australia at the&nbsp;2 December Memorial Service
Police ended supervision of the mine-site last week and turned recovery procedures back to the company. A Polish-designed G&oacute;rbniczy Agregat Gaśniczy (GAG) jet engine inertisation unit was brought in from the Queensland, Australia, Mine Rescue Unit and on 2 December began to suppress the fires and neutralize combustible gases with inert gases, such as nitrogen. 
 
While this continued over this weekend, a metal cap was placed over the main shaft to allow back pressure in the mine and to further inert deadly gases inside the mine. Early speculation to the cause of the initial explosion was a power outage to a ventilation fan that was some 100 metres into the mine. Methane quickly built-up, followed by a massive explosion. 
 
When an electrician went inside to check the outage during the fateful afternoon of 19 November, the explosion deeper in the mine blew him off his feet. He did manage to rescue an equipment operator who was thrown from a machine, and the two escaped 108 metres up a ladder in a ventilation shaft. Whether or not the giant ventilation fan had been topside, making it easier to re-start, will surely be one of the many issues in upcoming investigations, including the Royal Commission Inquiry. 
 
Several disaster relief funds have been established, and the ICEM is recommending donation be sent to EPMU&rsquo;s &ldquo;Pike River Miners&rsquo; Family Support Trust.&rdquo; The ICEM&rsquo;s New Zealand affiliate said half of everything contributed will go to the Grey District Labour Council community fund, with the other half used to establish a dedicated fund for the education of the children of those miners killed. 
 
Bank transfers can be made to Kiwibank in New Zealand. Account number 38-9011-0165987-00, with checks written to: EPMU Pike River Miners&rsquo; Family Support Trust, c/o PO Box 14-277, Kilbirnie, Wellington, NZ 6241. 
 
Several labour organisations across the globe have already contributed, including A$100,000 by the Australian Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Construction Union (CFMEU) and C$10,000 by the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Union.

Pike River Aftermath: Layoffs, Lawyers and Long Investigations

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The Building and Wood Workers&rsquo; International (BWI) has launched an international campaign calling on the Swedish furniture multi-national IKEA and its wholly-owned Swedwood subsidiary to uphold commitments on trade union and worker rights throughout its supply chain. The campaign comes in response to Swedwood and its appalling labour practices at a US factory in Danville, Virginia. 
 
Swedwood is the primary wood manufacturer for IKEA. 
 
In behaviour which has brought comparisons to Walmart, local management in Danville has blocked trade unions access to its 275 factory workers since commencing operations at the site in 2006. The Virginia Occupational Safety and Health Administration in October found Swedwood guilty of numerous unsafe work practices and improper record keeping, hiding the true numbers of serious accidents of workers. 
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Other abuses occurring at Swedwood in the US factory include forced overtime without advance notice, workers forced to work 30 days consecutively, managers manipulating work schedules to cut overtime, workers not allowed bathroom breaks, and most importantly, workers denied their right to trade union representation, and forced to work in an unsafe environment. 
 
BWI has always regarded dialogue in its Global Framework Agreement with IKEA as a model. In that agreement, BWI&rsquo;s first ever, IKEA clearly commits to follow the ILO core labour standards throughout its global operations. Since signing the agreement in 1998, those commitments have been respected in Poland, Russia, and elsewhere, and the Gene3va-based Global Union Federation (GUF) insists that local managers in Danville must be forced to open its doors to the BWI North American affiliate, the International Association of Machinists (IAM). 
 
BWI took the campaign to an IKEA outlet in Vernier, Geneva, on 7 December. Trade union leaders from over 25 countries conducted the protest and sent a clear message to IKEA that they were united against workers&rsquo; rights abuses in Danville, USA. See video footage of the campaign <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxrfPUe-2Kc">here</a>. 
 
The GUF is calling on supporters to send a Christmas card to IKEA CEO Mikael Ohlsson, demanding an end to labour rights abuses in Danville. The card states that IKEA&rsquo;s customers should be assured &ldquo;that the furnishing products they buy from your stores have been made by workers whose human rights are fully respected.&rdquo; Click <a href="http://www.goiam.org/ikea/">here</a> to send your Christmas message to IKEA.

BWI Launces Holiday Campaign Against IKEA’s Swedwood on Abusing Trade Union Rights

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By a vote of 521 to 398 on 6 December, members of Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi voted to end a 32-day strike against the world&rsquo;s third largest copper miner, located in Chile. The Union of Workers of the Collahuasi Copper Mine and Do&ntilde;a Ines de Collahuasi, owned jointly through 44% stakes each by AngloAmerican and Xstrata, resumed talks on 29 November with help from Roman Catholic Prelate Marco Antonio &Oacute;rdenes, Bishop of Iquique. 
 
The union's Second Director, Carlos Daniel Rojas, told the ICEM that Bishop &Oacute;rdenes succeeded &quot;in opening the door&quot; with the company when there appeared little hope that talks would resume, and the union took it from there to work out a settlement. 
 
The final resolve came in negotiations on 5-6 December, with an acceptable compromise. 
 
The vote during the evening of 6 December ended the longest private-sector Chilean copper strike, surpassing one of 26 days in 2006 at the Escondida mine, owned 57.5% by BHP Billiton and 30% by Rio Tinto. 
<img alt="" src="" width="190" height="142" />
Members of the Union Vote to Ratify 42-month Contract on Monday, 6 December
Terms of the settlement will give the 1,551 miners of Collahuasi a wage increase of 16.3% over a 42-month period, and a bonus payment of 12 million pesos (US$25,160). Other key issues in the strike, which began on 5 November, were company-paid health care and education costs for miners&rsquo; children. The union did make significant advances in both these areas from prior levels paid by the company. 
 
The Collahuasi Miners&rsquo; Union also won bonuses for work performed on national holidays, even more of a bonus on Christmas, a 40,000-peso-per-month improvement in the housing allowance, a 400,000-peso housing loan, and dependent scholarship awards for both primary school and university education. 
 
Union President Manuel Mu&ntilde;oz said the contract&rsquo;s outcome would increase monthly benefits by 120,000 pesos, or US$252 per month. 
 
The strike was marked by a united workforce led by Mu&ntilde;oz and Second Director Rojas. The miners of Collahuasi took up residency in the Santa Mar&iacute;a School in Iquique, and staged peaceful and near-daily manifestations in that city. Those demonstrations were strategic in order to draw attention to their cause of gaining adequate health coverage and educational stipends from an employer that posted net profits in 2009 of US$1.56 billion due to high copper pricing. 
 
The 6 December vote took place inside the Santa Mar&iacute;a School. Collahuasi miners returned to return to work high in the Atacama desert of Chile&rsquo;s northern Region I, some 285 kilometres from the port city of Iquique, during the evening of 7 December. 
 
&quot;The Collahuasi miners and their families showed strength and fortitude in a dignified and peaceful way against an enterprise intent on maintaining production and turning profits,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &quot;For that, they have earned the pride and admiration of the world's mining unions.&quot; 
 
ICEM coverage of this heroic strike throughout November can be found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4117-Chile’s-Collahuasi-Copper-Strike-Now-in-Crucial-Stage">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4102-Miners-Dig-In-at-Chile’s-Collahuasi-Copper-Strike">here</a>.

ICEM Applauds Resolve of Collahuasi Miners in Chile at Strike’s End

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The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), ICEM&rsquo;s white-collar affiliate in Africa&rsquo;s most populous country, halted a strike on 4 December against Mobil Producing Nigeria Ltd., a subsidiary of the American energy giant ExxonMobil, so that negotiations over breaches to a collective agreement could begin. 
 
The strike was conducted by the Mobil Producing Nigeria Branch of PENGASSAN over the energy company&rsquo;s sudden and unilateral sacking of 84 Nigerian workers. The union blocked entry at the company&rsquo;s administrative offices in Eket in Akwa Ibom State, as well as at other Mobil Producing facilities in Lagos and Port Harcourt. 
 
The strike began on 30 November and was called off on 4 December when Mobil decided to discuss the issue, stating that it would return the workers to their jobs. 
<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="99" />
The company, the operating partner in a joint venture with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corp., dismissed 66 offshore workers and 18 office employees employed by various contractors. Under the collective agreement, the workers are covered by provisions of the agreement. 
 
By late last week, negotiations did prove that Mobil had violated the contract, both in terms of failing to meet and discuss the layoffs with PENGASSAN prior to the sackings and failing to establish redundancy pay with the union. 
 
The union and company agreed to establish a working group to calculate the exact remuneration owed dismissed workers but Mobil&nbsp;has not returned Nigerian nationals to their rightful jobs. 
 
PENGASSAN has constantly had to defend its collective agreements is the rapid escalation of casualisation in Nigeria&rsquo;s oil and gas sector, with Mobil Producing consistently being one of the worst violators.

PENGASSAN Halts ExxonMobil Strike in Nigeria for Talks

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Some 45,000 German paperworkers will see a 2.5% wage increase come 1 January. That was the negotiated result in Gernsbach in the third round of bargaining that concluded early on 2 December between ICEM affiliate IGBCE and Deutschen Papierindustrie (VAP), the employers association. 
 
The new collective agreement will run until 30 November 2011 and for the first time, ties together under one collective agreement workers employed at some 220 paper mills in both the western and eastern regions of Europe&rsquo;s biggest economy. 
<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="102" />
IGBCE and VAP agreed to improve the pension plan effective 1 January 2012 by &euro;100 from &euro;234.98. IGBCE also won improved holiday pay and shift work increases effective 1 January 2011. 
 
Perhaps most significantly, the two sides used a working group to reach a common understanding over the use of temporary workers, thus preventing the abuse of such workers. 
 
IGBCE Chief Negotiator for the Paper Sector, Holger Nieden, called the results satisfactory, stating that some paper industry employers in Germany have weathered the financial crisis in good economic shape, while others have workers that are still employed at still reduced hours.

IGBCE, German Paper Producers Reach Wage Terms for 2011

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The ICEM and the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) jointly held a discussion panel entitled &ldquo;Cutting Emissions - Transforming Jobs,&quot; exploring the links between the economic, environmental, and social crises. The 7 December panel was part of a trade union-sponsored side event at COP16 and was held at the Universidad del Sur in Canc&uacute;n, Mexico, under the general banner &quot;World of Work.&quot; 
 
Several high-profile trade unionists gave their perspectives on how to preserve and create decent, sustainable jobs, and the role of trade unions in fighting climate change. 
 
Shoichiro Kaneko, IMF-JC/JBU of Japan, emphasized the progress that nation has made in controlling carbon emissions through technological advances, and the support offered to the proposed climate fund. However, he expressed concern about the potential for carbon leakage if a new accord does not include all the major emitters and is not enforceable. 
<img alt="" src="" width="233" height="166" />
Left to right: ICEM's Brian Kohler, CFMEU's Michael O'Conner, ITUC's James Howard, IMF-JC/JBU's Shoichiro Kaneko
Michael O'Connor, National Secretary-elect of Australia&rsquo;s Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) told of how his union had forged a working relationship with environmental groups to unlock the economic potential for a new pulp and paper mill in Tasmania. 
 
He said the key was to remember that a trade union represents workers, and to ensure that their voice is heard. 
 
James Howard of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) elaborated on ITUC's policy of Just Transition. Far from simple, a Just Transition will only be achieved through research, dialogue, union-employer agreements, strong social programmes, investments in industry, and training and education of workers. 
 
The keynote speaker was Izura Kobayashi of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), part of the Japanese official negotiating team in Canc&uacute;n. He presented a very frank resume of the ongoing climate talks.
<img alt="" src="" width="220" height="128" />
Izura Kobayashi of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, and CFMEU's Michael O'Connor
Besides explaining Japan's position (Japan believes that the Kyoto process does not have sufficient country support to prevent carbon leakage) he also explained the status of many of the important main track and subsidiary body discussions. As of 7 December, the unusual situation has evolved of the high-level talks commencing while the ad-hoc working groups have not completed their tasks. 
 
What this means for the final outcome is difficult to guess, but progress has been made on some important issues. Japan, of course, believes that efficient energy use in its manufacturing industries and investment in new technologies is one of the key paths forward. 
 
Brian Kohler of the ICEM and Kan Matusuzaki of IMF presented ICEM and IMF policies, the outcomes of the World Conference on Sustainability held in June along with the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF), and a discussion paper on &quot;Anticipating Change&quot; that examines how the proposed climate fund could be a starting point for discussions on industrial policies and worker participation in such areas as training. 
 
The ICEM-IMF World of Work event was well attended, and feedback following the event was extremely positive.

ICEM, IMF Forum at Climate Conference Presents Industrial Perspectives

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The ICEM tracks climate negotiations because of their profound implications for all workers, but especially industrial workers in energy-producing and energy-intensive industries. The Global Union Federation supports a fair, ambitious, and legally-binding climate treaty, but insists that decision-makers consider the social implications. 
 
Existing jobs must be made more sustainable, and new, or &ldquo;green jobs,&rdquo; can be created, but they must not be &ldquo;mcjobs.&rdquo; They must provide decent work. This implies a need for national industrial strategies. Strong social programmes must back specific &ldquo;Just Transition&rdquo; provisions. 
 
Lastly, the world must not forget that fundamental structural changes in our economy are needed as the financial crisis demonstrated that the same kind of short-sighted thinking that has jeopardized the environment, equally has jeopardized economic stability. 
 
After the failure that was COP-15 in Copenhagen in 2009, COP-16 in Canc&uacute;n, Mexico, opened to low expectations. Many felt that the best that could be hoped for was to put the process back on track, build some trust, and aim for real decisions at COP-17 in 2011. 
<img alt="" src="" width="181" height="125" />
ICEM&rsquo;s Brian Kohler speaking at plenary session of Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action
At COP-15, before the talks collapsed and the so-called &ldquo;Copenhagen Accord&rdquo; emerged from secret backroom talks, trade unions had succeeded in winning the insertion of a paragraph in the &ldquo;Shared Vision&rdquo; portion of the Long-term Cooperative Action draft, covering a range of issues including adaptation, mitigation, financing, research and development, technology transfer, training and education, and Just Transition. This paragraph came to be known as the &ldquo;Just Transition and Decent Work&rdquo; paragraph. 
 
For reasons unknown, the Chair of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) removed this paragraph from the document under discussion, and labour was faced with a fight to get it back. 
 
The Just Transition language agreed that &ldquo;addressing climate change requires a paradigm shift towards building a low-emission society that offers substantial opportunities and ensures continued high growth and sustainable development, based on innovative technologies and more sustainable production and consumption and lifestyles, while ensuring a just transition of the workforce that creates decent work and quality jobs.&rdquo; 
 
Related stakeholder language that was also missing recognized the need for civil society to participate in decisions that affect their lives, workplaces, and communities. 
 
Recovering this language became a priority of the trade union delegation to COP-16. ICEM Health, Safety, Sustainability Officer Brian Kohler addressed the opening plenary of the AWG-LCA on behalf of trade unions, and emphasized the need for this language. 
 
Throughout the two weeks of COP-16, coordinated by the International Trade Union Confederation&rsquo;s (ITUC) Anabella Rosemberg, every trade union delegate made efforts to contact members of the negotiating teams to stress the need for this paragraph. Kohler himself spoke to negotiators from Europe, Japan, and the assistant to the Chair of the AWG-LCA, among others. This all-out effort finally paid off: at the last minute, on the last day, it was announced that the text had made it back into the &ldquo;Shared Vision.&rdquo; 
 
The final report of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific and Technical Advice, on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) eligibility as a Clean Development Mechanism (part of the Kyoto Protocol track), presented two options on CCS for consideration by the Parties. In the end, the Parties adopted the more favourable of the two options. Therefore, CCS will be an eligible project activity under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), provided it complies with fairly stringent risk and safety assessments. This is a positive development for supporters of CCS, including ICEM and many of its affiliates. 
 
As for protecting the earth from disastrous climate change, much remains to be done. Developed countries must be more ambitious in their emissions reduction targets, and although progress was made on the subject of funding, the poorest nations of the world have yet to see a fully adequate finance plan for mitigation and adaptation. 
 
On balance, however, COP-16 did represent a small step forward, and raises hope that at COP-17 next year, a more effective &ldquo;fair, ambitious, and binding&rdquo; climate treaty may be reached. 
 
The full list of agreements reached at COP-16 can be read <a href="http://unfccc.int/2860.php ">here</a>.

COP-16: Modest Trade Union Successes Inside Big Picture

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