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UK ICEM affiliate Amicus denounced French multinational Saint-Gobain&rsquo;s decision to reduce the number of workers at its Stanton Iron Works plant in Ikeston, Derbyshire. The company announced on 5 December that is was cutting 220 of 400 jobs, beginning in April 2007, citing price increases in scrap steel and high energy costs. 
 
Amicus called the holiday-season announcement &ldquo;a heavy blow to the workers who face an uncertain few months ahead,&rdquo; and the union immediately scheduled meetings with management to discuss the need for redundancies and to begin enhanced severance talks. 
Saint-Gobain&rsquo;s announcement said it would retain flange pipe making at Stanton, and keep customer servicing staff based in Derbyshire. But the community loses the production of water pipes, which it has been supplying to the UK&rsquo;s water-delivery system for decades. The Paris-based company said the work will now be done in France and Germany. 
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Amicus said that the loss of 220 jobs in Ikeston will lift November&rsquo;s job-loss totals in the East Midlands to nearly 1,000. Amicus has been campaigning and lobbying the government to introduce better employment laws that protects UK workers and assist more in alternative job placements. 
 
Amicus has also been calling for a statutory entitlement to be established that provides workers with a skills and training agenda, as well as for a statutory employer investment fund for training. Amicus says the current tone and level of the debate over jobs and training is &ldquo;largely irrelevant&rdquo; next to the tens of thousands of high-skilled and well-paid jobs that have left the UK. 
 
Amicus Assistant General Secretary Tony Burke provided a stark reminder on why the UK was in such a jobs crisis: &ldquo;Employers have neglected to invest in the skills of their workforces for decades. This under-investment means that we now have to run to stand still in terms of up-skilling.&rdquo;

Amicus Refutes Saint-Gobain’s 50% Reductions in UK Pipe Manufacturing

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In a display of political manoeuvring that will have a devastating effect on millions of contract workers, South Korea&rsquo;s Grand National Party (GNP) and Uri Party combined to pass a series of bills in the final days of the most current National Assembly session. 
Included among those bills were three so-called &ldquo;irregular workers&rsquo; bills,&rdquo; which will give Korean employers a virtual unlimited license to use and discard contract and agency workers. 
 
The contract workers&rsquo; bills, along with hundreds of other bills, had been held up by the GNP throughout the current 100-day legislative session over opposition to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun&rsquo;s choice for president of the country&rsquo;s highest court, the Constitutional Court. 
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But in mid-November, Roh withdrew the nomination of his close friend, Chon Hyo-suk, and two weeks later, on 30 November, GNP members inside the Assembly sided with Roh&rsquo;s Uri Party members to push into law the liberalisation of contract workers. 
 
GNP support for the measures meant that the Uri Party&rsquo;s 139 members had the necessary majority in the 297-seat Assembly for passage. But passage did not come without controversy. The Uri Party Speaker of the Assembly bypassed a key committee and took the bills straight to a plenary session for final vote. Passage occurred despite vehement opposition from South Korea&rsquo;s two labour federations, and members of the Democratic Labor Party. 
 
The new irregular workers&rsquo; law will, beginning in July 2007, allow employers with 300 workers or more to utilise contract or agency workers for up to two years before they must be made permanent. The same policy becomes effective in July 2008 for companies with 100 to 299 workers. For companies with fewer than 100 workers, the two-year period takes effect in September 2008. 
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&ldquo;South Korea has effectively opened a revolving door for the use of contract and agency workers,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &ldquo;Employers can now use, abuse, and then discard contract workers within a two-year time period, which certainly will prove to be detrimental to sustainable and family-supporting full-time direct employment inside the country.&rdquo; 
 
South Korea currently is one of the highest ranking OECD countries in terms of contract workers, with estimates of up to 50%, or 8.5 million workers, engaged in work in part-time or temporary status. 
 
In another legislative action before the National Assembly, a committee late last week passed a controversial labour reform measure which includes the three-year suspension of a pay ban for full-time union members, as well as allowing multiple unions to take hold inside a workplace, effective in December 2009. 
The reform bill, passed by the labour committee on 8 December, must now go before the judiciary committee before it is expected to be voted on in plenary session this week.

Korea’s National Assembly Passes Regressive Contract and Agency Labour Regulations

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<ul>
 <li>Sustainability / Acceptability policy to be submitted to the next ICEM congress 
 </li>
 <li>Education / Training / Skill development 
 </li>
 <li>Workers&rsquo; voice for democratic energy policies 
 </li>
 <li>Solidarity and dialog between unions of exporting and importing countries 
 </li>
 <li>Endorsement of the ICEM Nuclear Workers Unions Network (INWUN) with a clear reference to the ICEM Congress policy decisions 
 </li>
 <li>Expanding contacts between coal miners and the energy section 
 </li>
 <li>Adding value locally for development 
 </li>
 <li>ICEM-ITF Working Group on HS in the oil and gas transportation sector with particular attention to remote and hostile environments 
 </li>
 <li>Global Framework Agreements 
 </li>
 <li>Support for Contract &amp; Agency Labor expanded campaign </li>
</ul>

Action Plan - ICEM World Conference for the Energy Industries

Letter of Solidarity to the German Miners Defending Their Jobs 

 
The ICEM World Conference for the Energy Industries supports the German miners, who today demonstrate with IG BCE in Dresden during the CDU party convention to keep their jobs and to keep the German hard-coal mining alive. 
 
The German government and the delegates of today&rsquo;s CDU convention in Dresden are expected to maintain future employment in German hard-coal mining. 
 
The energy report presented to the ICEM World Conference for the Energy Industries outlines the competitiveness of coal as a fuel source and the increasing demand for it. 
A future for European coal-fired electricity generation without indigenous coal would be inconceivable. The ICEM World Conference for the Energy Industries supports the European affiliates struggling for the future of hard-coal mining in their countries.

German miners&#039; Resolution to the ICEM World Conference for the Energy Industries

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1. Increasing of our efforts to sign more global framework agreements not only with companies but also with international branch organisations, like for example CropLife and IFPMA 
 
2. Using the SAICM process to build up a stronger influence on chemicals management, safety and occupational health and safety on a national and regional and global level 
 
3. Organizing of an international exchange of experience dealing with Mergers &amp; Acquisitions (M&amp;A), including the development of a proposal on how to get better involved in the M&amp;A process. 
 
4. Continue the fight against precarious employment and strengthen the common efforts of all ICEM member organisations and all global trade union federations, in order to prevent a further erosion of employee and trade union rights within companies (CAL project) 
 
5. Starting a &ldquo;social dialogue&rdquo; with employers on a global level (for example ILO or global framework agreements with International Employers&rsquo; Organisations) 
 
6. Actively seek to promote the 1990 ILO Safety in the Use of Chemicals at Work Convention 170 and the Globally Harmonized System of Chemical Classification and Labelling (GHS), and engage with the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) regarding trade union involvement in the Responsible Care programme. 
 
7. All ICEM activities will put a serious effort into improving the workplace environment of the chemical industry for women, and improve the possibilities of combining work and private life for men and women. We also ask our affiliates to make sure that the participation of female delegates on international conferences get an appropriate share, and minimally contains one woman (as concluded on last executive meeting).

Action Plan - ICEM World Conference for the Chemical Industries

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&nbsp; 
Reminder to ICEM Affiliates 
 
In our November e-bulletin we have encouraged you to join the campaign on 
World AIDS Day, 1 December 
against stigma, discrimination and victimisation, and for prevention, care and support and treatment. 
 
Please, report back to <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org</a> on any actions you have taken. 
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ICEM HIV/AIDS Workshop in India 
 
21 participants from four ICEM affiliates in the mining, diamond, cement and chemical/electricity sectors participated in a workshop in Puri, Orissa, 16-19 November. The workshop was held at the Gandhi Labour Foundation, which is part of the network of Institutes for Miners and Metalworkers Education (IMME) of the Indian National Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation (INMF). 
 
The workshop was inaugurated by veteran trade union leader, former General Secretary and President Emeritus of the INMF, long-time member of the ILO Governing Body and former Vice President of the MIF, Kanti Mehta. 
 
The objectives of the workshop included the achievement of a solid knowledge about the HIV/AIDS epidemic; the introduction and advocacy of the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work; the development of workplace policies and of a work plan of activities with sustainable funding sources. 
It incorporated a baseline survey of what policies exist and what activities have taken place. IMME had run an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign in the Korba area of South Eastern Coal Limited, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited from December 2004 to April 2006 with the support from the Catholic Relief Services. 
 
The workshop answered the question why unions should get involved in HIV/AIDS activities and how they could get involved. Participants drafted a workplace policy which includes non-discrimination and non-victimisation, confidentiality and care and support and came up with an action programme. 
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Focus on India 
 
The Indian national response to HIV/AIDS is led by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), a department of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. NACO was created in 1992 and provides the strategy and direction for the whole country. India is a decentralised federation and in each state, a State AIDS Control Society is responsible for coordinating the implementation of the national strategy. 
Besides general awareness, information and behaviour change communication, the strategy is based on targeted interventions aiming at high-risk groups, providing access to VCT, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and, since 2004, access to antiretroviral treatment. 
 
According to the UNAIDS/WHO 2006 Epidemic Update, India is experiencing a highly varied HIV epidemic which appears to be stable in some parts while growing in others. Approximately 5.7 million people, of whom 5.2 million were adults aged 15 to 49 years, were living with HIV in 2005. This is the highest absolute number of HIV infections in the world although the prevalence rate at 0.9% is relatively low due to the large population of more than 1.1 billion. 
 
The majority of HIV infections occur in a few regions. About two thirds of reported infections have been in six of the country&rsquo; 28 states &ndash; mainly in the industrialised south and west and the north-eastern tip. On average, HIV prevalence in those states is 4 to 5 times higher than in the other Indian states. 
 
The bulk of HIV infections in India happen during unprotected heterosexual intercourse. Consequently, women account for a growing proportion of people living with HIV (some 38% in 2005). A large proportion of women have acquired the virus from regular partners who were infected during paid sex. 
In Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra state, for example, 54% and 49% of sex workers have been found to be infected. In such a scenario the likelihood of transmission between sex workers and their clients and their other sex partners is extremely high. Prevention efforts have been started by organisations of sex workers themselves in the state of West Bengal but condom use is still inconsistent in other parts of India. 
 
Injecting drug use is the main risk factor for HIV infections in the north-east and in major cities. In Chennai (formerly Madras), 31% of injecting drug users were found to be HIV positive. 
 
The report states that above all, more must be done to combat stigma, which remains rife in all walks of Indian society and to reduce gender and other inequalities which make HIV prevention and treatment such a huge challenge. 
 
The 3rd Five-Year Plan (NACP III) is currently under preparation. In early November, one of the largest Global Fund HIV/AIDS grants for US$ 259 million over the 5-year grant period was approved for India. 
 
(Source: UNAIDS/WHO AIDS 2006 Epidemic Update and UNAIDS country profile) 
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The Gates Foundation in India 
 
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given a US$ 200 million five-year grant to operate an HIV prevention programme on a scale never done before. The Foundation&rsquo;s prevention efforts, known as Ahavan &ndash; a Sanskrit word meaning &ldquo;call to action&rdquo; &ndash; target the commercial sex trade, which is a main transmission route for the infection. 
The challenge is complex. Often the sex trade is nearly invisible with sex workers working out of truck stops or even in small village homes. 
 
One of India&rsquo;s hardest-hit areas, the remote northeast, has an entirely different problem. There, most HIV transmissions come from needles shared by hundreds of drug addicts. 
 
All these problems are confounded by the stigma attached to AIDS in a very conservative society. 
 
Ahavan&rsquo;s strategy has been to adopt a business-style structure. The product is prevention, and the Foundation formed a pyramid structure to get to its consumers. It contracted 15 other organisations which, in turn, work with about 150 grass-root groups. They engage some 5,000 sex workers, many of them HIV-positive, to get the message about condom use out. 
 
(Source: Abbreviated article by Gavin Rabinowitz, AP US and WorldMonday, 3 July 2006) 
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NUM Calls for Accelerated Conversion of Hostels 
 
The ICEM affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) called upon the South African mining industry to accelerate the conversion of single-sex hostel accommodation to decent family housing. 
 
Speaking at the 2nd Mining Industry Tripartite HIV/AIDS Summit, NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni reiterated that doing away with single-sex hostels would go a long way in dealing with HIV, AIDS and TB. He said that migrant labour travelling between their communities and the mines was fuelling the epidemic and added that a mineworker housing scheme would establish a family environment, which was more likely to deal with the spread of HIV. 
 
Baleni also urged the mining industry to extent antiretroviral treatment to the partners of mineworkers and singled out AngloGold Ashanti, Anglo Collieries, Gold Fields, Harmony and De Beers as firms only treating their workers. 
 
He told the summit that little progress has been made in prevention since the first summit held in 2003. Baleni called on employers and the government to create a more supportive environment for voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) and said that the peer group support system should be improved. 
 
(Source: Mining Weekly, South Africa, 6 November 2006)
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AIDS in Zimbabwe &ndash; Facts and Fiction 
 
In its latest report, UNAIDS cites Zimbabwe as an example of successful prevention measures. Between 2002 and 2005, the prevalence rate among pregnant women has dropped from 29.6% to 20.1%. That would make Zimbabwe one of the most successful countries in the world in the fight against the epidemic. 
 
There are, however, strong indications that government-supplied statistics are more based on fiction than on facts. The almost complete collapse of the health system in the wake of a long and severe economic crisis and an absence of prevention campaigns make it hard to believe that prevalence rates have come done. Furthermore, according to the government&rsquo;s own figures, only 23,000 persons received anti-retroviral treatment at the end of 2005 when 321,000 needed it. 
 
If the prevalence rates among different groups have come down, it is due to other factors such as persons living with AIDS simply dying or that HIV-positive people have left the country in search of work elsewhere. It is estimated that two to three million Zimbabweans have emigrated, mainly to South Africa. 
 
(Source: Neue Z&uuml;rcher Zeitung, Switzerland, 20 November 2006) 
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="20" />
Global AIDS Epidemic Continues to Grow 
 
The global AIDS epidemic continues to grow and there is evidence that some countries are seeing a resurgence in new HIV infection rates which were previously stable or declining. However, declines in infection rates are also being observed in other countries, as well as positive trends in young people&rsquo;s sexual behaviours. 
 
According to the latest figures published in the UNAIDS/WHO 2006 Epidemic Update (www.unaids.org), an estimated 39.5 million people are living with HIV. There were 4.3 million new infections in 2006 with 2.8 million (65%) of these occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and important increases in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where in some countries infection rates have risen by more than 50% since 2004. In 2006, 2.9 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses. 
 
(Source: UNAIDS/WHO Press Release, 21 November 2006)

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 15

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ExxonMobil workers in Belgium returned to work on 21 November after a week-long strike in protest of the unfair dismissal of five workers at a refinery in Virton. Work continued inside the refinery behind closed plant gates, preventing any trucks from driving in or out. 
 
On 23 November, workers were forced to reopen the gates after the company had sought and won a legal injunction. According to Belgian union representatives, industrial actions will continue as workers pledge to do whatever it takes to get the US-based oil multinational to respect their rights. 
The spontaneous strike started when it became known that the five workers had been dismissed for &ldquo;not respecting the ethics of the company.&rdquo; Reportedly, the workers were found to have exchanged pornographic e-mails. In addition to the five employees that were dismissed, ten others were temporarily suspended for four days.
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While acknowledging that company e-mail networks are not to be used for distribution of erotic material, ICEM affiliated unions from both national centres,&nbsp;FGTB and CSC, claim management&rsquo;s reaction was completely out of proportion. The dismissals are extreme and drastic punishments, condemning workers and their families to hardship. The unions contend that ExxonMobil has suffered no moral or financial harm as a result of the e-mails. 
The unions&rsquo; statement said that there are privacy laws in Belgium which ExxonMobil can not violate. Workers and unions denounced the company&rsquo;s radical position on the matter, saying it can, under no circumstances, agree with a company that believes it owns the right to decide what is right and what is wrong. 
 
The unions have taken the matter to court and demand the reinstatement of the workers. They also call on ExxonMobil to bring its &ldquo;code&rdquo; before the unions for discussion. The code, FGTB and CSC believes, must conform to Belgian law.

Belgian ExxonMobil Workers Strike after ‘Unethical E-mail’

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Balloting is underway among paperworkers represented by three UK unions to turn the page on the adversarial relationship that has dominated the country&rsquo;s papermaking industry. 
 
A new framework &ldquo;Partnership Agreement&rdquo; has been agreed to by senior industrialists and national officers of Amicus, the Transport &amp; General Workers Union (TGWU), and GMB, together with Britain&rsquo;s Confederation of Paper Industries, an employers&rsquo; grouping of pulp, paper, and converting companies. 
<img height="62" src="" width="120" align="middle" alt="" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<img height="70" src="" width="70" align="middle" alt="" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="55" src="" width="100" align="middle" alt="" />
The agreement sets out modern approaches to the employment relationship across the sector, and includes as its motto &ldquo;Work Together, Grow Together, Stay Together.&rdquo; The three unions briefed local branch leaders on the agreement earlier in November, and union leaders are recommending that workers now accept the concept. 
 
&quot;The new agreement is an important step in securing modern working terms across the industry, such as work-life balance, actively promoting learning and skills, providing safer workplaces, promoting dignity at work and giving employees an opportunity to be informed and consulted, and actively involved in improving the performance of their workplace,&quot; said Amicus Assistant General Secretary Tony Burke. 
<img height="102" src="" width="100" alt="" />
According to the independent chairman of CPI, Professor Frank Burchill, &ldquo;The agreement provides an essential framework for all the parties to work as partners in tackling the challenges in securing a healthy future for the papermaking industry.&quot; 
 
The agreement, if passed, is expected to take effect in early 2007. 
 
UK&rsquo;s papermaking industry employs over 10,000 people in over 60 worksites, but has struggled to remain competitive in the face of reduced output coupled with high energy costs. Papermaking, along with printing in the UK, is one of the few industries to have industry-wide bargaining.

UK Unions Could Embark on New Partnering Relationship in Paper Sector

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Some 1,000 German coal miners will convene in Dresden tomorrow, 28 November, to lobby the Christian Democratic Party to preserve federal coal subsidies. 
 
Miners will handbill the CDU&rsquo;s Congress with a leaflet entitled &ldquo;We Fight for Germany&rsquo;s Energy Future&rdquo;, aimed at reminding German Chancellor Angela Merkel of promises she made to the preservation of the country&rsquo;s coal mining industry. 
 
The action is supported by ICEM German affiliate IGBCE. 
 
Some 700 miners will arrive from the Ruhr region and from Ibbenb&uuml;ren, some 300 others from the province of Saarland. The miners and their union are reacting to motions passed by CDU&rsquo;s North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland regional delegations to reduce the current level of coal mining in those areas, as well as proposing to phase-out mining subsidies by the first half of the next decade. 
<img height="62" src="" width="100" alt="" />
The miners contend that domestic coal is necessary in a balanced energy mix, and argue that Germany has become too dependent on imports of both coal and natural gas. 
 
The handbilling campaign also seeks to remind Merkel, as well as North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister J&uuml;rgen R&uuml;ttgers and Saarland Prime Minister Peter M&uuml;ller, of pledges they made that any adjustments in the coal mining industry would be socially acceptable, and occur without closures to existing mining operations.

German Coal Miners Take Protest to CDU Congress on 28 November

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;
Following failed bargaining between negotiators for the United Steelworkers (USW) and the Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber Co. from 14 to 17 November, the ICEM North American affiliate has heightened its safety and awareness campaign against the US tyre-maker. 
 
On 2 December, the USW will dispatch hundreds of strikers and supporters to 13 cities in the US and Canada to handbill Goodyear retail outlets. The effort, following a similar one on 18 November, will call attention to possible safety defects of Goodyear tyres to be sold in America. The company is attempting to run production at several of the 16 plant sites that are currently on strike with managers and temporary workers. 
<img height="109" alt="" src="" width="350" />
The USW has erected an &ldquo;Investor Alert&rdquo; website, <a href="http://www.usw.org/goodyearalert">www.usw.org/goodyearalert</a>, aimed at some 15,000 industry analysts, in an effort to drive the company&rsquo;s stock price down. The site calls into question Goodyear&rsquo;s third-quarter earnings report, and gives a truthful account of the company&rsquo;s future while skilled crafts-people are on strike. 
 
A total of 55% of the company&rsquo;s outstanding shares is owned by ten institutional investors.
The USW has also begun using a video-sharing site called YouTube to educate the public about the strike and the safety concerns stemming from union members being out. That site can be found at <a href="http://www3.youtube.com/watch?v=QDKGJu5eMZo">http://www3.youtube.com/watch?v=QDKGJu5eMZo</a>. 
The union has moreover begun targeting the NASCAR racing circuit, which is 100% supplied by Goodyear, providing high-quality and expensive race car tyres. USW begins a renewed radio advertising campaign this week, targeting consumers in the New York City area with the safety alert. 

<img height="50" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="53" alt="" src="" width="100" />
That alert is reminiscent of the campaign the union engaged in against Bridgestone/Firestone some 11 years ago. After that lockout, researchers at Princeton University in the US state of New Jersey examined the causes of the Ford Motor recall of 14.4 million Firestone tyres, and linked it to the temporary workers utilised during the dispute. 
 
These tyres were later linked by the US National Highway Safety Transportation Authority to some 271 road fatalities and more than 800 injuries. 
The Goodyear strike at the 16 US and Canadian tyre and auto accessory plants by 15,000 steelworkers began on 5 October, after America&rsquo;s biggest rubber company proposed harsh concessions and refused to guarantee job security at the unionised plants. 
<img height="80" alt="" src="" width="80" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
The proposed concessionary terms include closing company-paid health care coverage for retirees and a two-tier wage scheme in which new employees will be paid US$13-per-hour with no future opportunity to make what current rubber workers earn. The company also seeks to close at least one tyre-making plant, in Tyler, Texas, where 1,100 workers are employed. 
 
In the mid-November bargaining &ndash; the first talks since the strike began &ndash; Goodyear proposed to create a US$600 million trust fund for retiree health care. The Akron, Ohio-based company, however, carries a US$1.2 billion liability for retiree care. The proposed US$600 million trust would only provide current retirees with six years of coverage, leaving nothing for future retirees. 
 
The USW has promised to escalate the campaign to an even higher level if the strike is not settled by the first of 2007. The Steelworkers&rsquo; general website on all Goodyear related activity can be found at <a href="http://www.gkdsolidarityexpress.org">http://www.gkdsolidarityexpress.org</a>.

Steelworkers Ramp up Campaign Surrounding North American Goodyear Strike

Archive

Amicus Refutes Saint-Gobain’s 50% Reductions in UK Pipe Manufacturing

Korea’s National Assembly Passes Regressive Contract and Agency Labour Regulations

Action Plan - ICEM World Conference for the Energy Industries

German miners' Resolution to the ICEM World Conference for the Energy Industries

Action Plan - ICEM World Conference for the Chemical Industries

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 15

Belgian ExxonMobil Workers Strike after ‘Unethical E-mail’

UK Unions Could Embark on New Partnering Relationship in Paper Sector

German Coal Miners Take Protest to CDU Congress on 28 November

Steelworkers Ramp up Campaign Surrounding North American Goodyear Strike

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