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A written agreement took effect between strikers at chrome mines and a ferrochrome smelter in Bulqiza, Albania, the ICEM-affiliated Trade Union Federation of Industrial Workers, and Italian-based Darfo SRL, thus ending a month-long strike.
The agreement for hundreds of miners came after intense negotiations on 5 July that involved senior managers of the Italian company, including CEO Dr. Heinz Muller. 

It was signed late in the day on 6 July, and workers returned to work on 9 July. 
 
The agreement also came after more than 200 of the miners and their families demonstrated on the steps of Albania&rsquo;s Parliament in Tirana, as well as at the Ministries of Economy and Energy and Labour and Social Causes there. Those protests occurred two weeks ago.
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&nbsp; 
Parliamentarians, however, avoided the strikers by being driven to the opposite of the building, while the respective government ministers refused to meet with the miners. 
 
The agreement only came about after senior managers of Darfo in northern Italy intervened. 

Unfortunately, the dispute was marked by fierce controversy between two unions: the Federation of Industrial Workers, affiliated to the national centre KSSH, and the Albanian Independent Trade Union Miners (SPMSH), an affiliate of the dissolved WFIW affiliate now seeking global union affiliation. Both groups claim to represent the chrome miners and smelting workers, with SPMSH claiming it had signed a similar ageement with the company in early June. 
 
Both contracts are said to contain pay increases of 30%. Further negotiations will occur in the weeks ahead, and another 20% pay increase will be discussed. If that is won for the Bulqiza miners, their wage demands of 50% will be realised.
The miners have demanded wage increases in each of the past six years, but these demands were ignored by both the company and Albanian government officials. 
Safety, working conditions, and housing &ndash; equally important demands by miners in this dispute &ndash; will also be discussed in the weeks ahead. 
 
The June strikes by workers lined up with the Federation of Industrial Workers also included hunger strikes that began on 25 June. Thirty miners at a time embarked on such strikes, with the number of them needing to be hospitalised. The demonstrations in Tirana by the union and KSSH also brought a sharp focus to the dispute. 
 
In the negotiated end to the strike, managers of Darfo, and its Austrian-based trading partner, Deco Metals, agreed that no miner would be disciplined for striking, and all miners would be paid for the full period of the strike, which began on 1 June. 
 
In 2001, Darfo signed a pair of 30-year license agreements with the Albanian government to mine and process chromium and iron ore in the Balkan country.

Chrome, Hunger Strikes End in Albania

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ICEM affiliates from the Latin America/Caribbean Region have adopted a statement in support of Costa Rican affiliate Sindicato de Trabajadores Petroleros Quimicos y Afines (SITRAPEQUIA), which has fought against adoption of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) by the country&rsquo;s government. 
 
If adopted, CAFTA would become the official free trade agreement between the United States and the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
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CAFTA has already been approved by all those countries, except. President Oscar Arias has announced a referendum will occur in Costa Rico on the free trade agreement later this year. 
 
According to the ICEM regional statement, which specifically cites the many current trade union rights violations in Costa Rica, adoption of CAFTA would bring it a whole range of negative symptoms and threats to society. 
 
The statement says that such dangers will include even more workers&rsquo; rights violations. It adds that the agreement would set in motion a systematic dismantling of many of the country&rsquo;s social and legal gains, and that Costa Rica stands to lose a fair degree of sovereignty if CAFTA is adopted. The free trade agreement would bypass important parts of the country&rsquo;s legal system in and allow dispute resolution of violations by multinational enterprises to be heard in international courts.
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Costa Rican unions fear that the agreement will result in heavy job losses, especially in agriculture and industry. For example, with the opening of unrestricted or semi-restricted trade, US food products, which enjoy heavy subsidising and technological advantages, will find access to Central American markets much easier. This will work to the detriment of local national products and the workers employed in the food and agriculture. 
 
Also mentioned in the ICEM regional statement are public health risks. Patents held by large pharmaceutical companies may become unavailable. The statement also cites dangers to the environment, with private companies gaining more rights to commercially exploit the many natural resources of Costa Rica. 
 
The resolution was adopted at the ICEM regional conference for Latin America/Caribbean in Salvador, Brazil, which occurred on 27-28 June. SITRAPEQUIA&rsquo;s is Costa Rica&rsquo;s oil and chemical trade union and its efforts to block ratification of CAFTA have strong support from the Costa Rican national trade union centre, Confederaci&oacute;n de Trabajadores Rerum Novarum (CTRN).

ICEM Latin American/Caribbean Region Adopts anti-CAFTA Statement on Behalf of Costa Rico

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Mansour Osanloo, the leader of the Tehran bus workers&rsquo; union, Sherkat-e Vahed (SKSV), was again arrested by Iran&rsquo;s secret police, following a June European tour that included meetings at the ILO International Labour Conference. Osanloo was abducted on 10 July after he stepped off a bus. 
 
Witnesses said he was beaten before being forced into a silver Peugeot and driven off. At first, Iranian authorities denied any knowledge of his whereabouts. But after two days, a Revolutionary Court judge acknowledged he was being held in the dreaded Evin prison, a jail that he had been in last year.
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Supporters of Osanloo in Tehran said the secret police has followed him around the clock since his return from Europe in late June. He spoke in Geneva at the ILO, London, and Brussels, where he addressed the General Council of the ITUC. At the ILO&rsquo;s annual conference, he said it was essential that the ILO and all of civil society oppose a draft labour code being proposed by the Islamic government in Iran. The law, if passed, would abolish nearly all workers&rsquo; rights gained in the past. 
 
The Labour Conference heard how the Iranian government brutally assaulted and then arrested activists during a 1 May celebration. And it heard from Osanloo that SKVS the union refuses to enforce a government decree limiting women passengers to the back seats of Tehran and Suburbs buses, and only if they are wearing sanctioned attire.
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David Cockroft, general secretary of The International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF), which hosted Osanloo in London, said last week, &ldquo;Three weeks ago we were applauding Mansour. One week ago we were successfully campaigning to have his deputy released from another unjustified arrest. This week we are profoundly worried about his physical safety and want to see Mansour freed and among his friends and family as quickly as possible.&rdquo; 
 
It marks the third time that Mansour Osanloo, 47, has been detained. In 2004, he helped form one of the first free trade unions since Iran&rsquo;s Islamic Republic was born in 1979. He led two successful strikes by transit workers that gave them a level of rights. But he was arrested twice in 2006, the latest a 19 December incarceration in which he was held for 22 days. 
 
The ICEM, along with the rest of the global labour movement, calls for immediate release of Mansour Osanloo from this latest, 10 July, unwarranted arrest.

Iran Again Arrests Mansour Osanloo Following His European Labour Visits

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Peru became the 22nd country to ratify ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, when Resolution No. 29012 passed the nation&rsquo;s Congress. The ratification is a tribute to all Peruvian mining unions, especially ICEM affiliate Confederaci&oacute;n General de Trabajadores del Per&uacute; (FNTMMSP) and national centre CGTP. 
 
With Convention 176 now officially on the books in Peru, miners win unprecedented rights in the country on safety and health matters. Ratification also is expected to bring new technology and techniques to one of the world&rsquo;s largest mining countries.
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&nbsp;&ldquo;The ICEM is proud to have had a small role &ndash; providing information and documentation on 176 &ndash; to Peru&rsquo;s trade unions,&rdquo; stated General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;But the real credit goes to FNTMMSP and all the other trade union organisations. They convinced those that needed convincing that with enactment of this important global standard, Peru is on course to a modern and sustainable mining sector.&rdquo; 
 
For the Peruvian government, they must now put in pace a national policy on mine safety and health. It must create a national agency that will thoroughly and regularly inspect and investigate all mining activity. Safe and reliable emergency procedures must be put in place in the event of accidents. 
 
Miners now can freely and without prejudice notify authorities and management of unsafe conditions. They have the right to call for expedited inspections or investigations, and they will have full access to all information and data concerning mine safety and health. They will also have the right to leave a mining operation in the event of serious risk. And worker representation backing these rights is guaranteed. 
 
For the mining employers, they must seek to eliminate all mining deaths and accidents by controlling and reducing inherent mining risks. They must provide the necessary equipment and communication systems to guarantee full security. And they must preserve the land and the environment, as well as the well-being of the communities and the people who reside in those communities near their mining holdings.
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Early in 2007, Peru&rsquo;s Commission on Work gave approval to national Resolution No. 29012 after strong and determined lobbying by Peru&rsquo;s labour unions. That came a month after a January 2007 visit to Peru by ILO Sec. Gen. Juan Somavia, who encouraged the government to ratify eight ILO Conventions, including the 1995 Safety and Health in Mines Convention No. 176. 
 
Nations that have now signed the Convention: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Botswana, Brazil, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Lebanon, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United States, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Peru Ratifies ILO Convention 176, the Mine Safety and Health Standard

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Turkey&rsquo;s only petrochemicals company, Petkim Petrokimya, was auctioned off 5 July by the state&rsquo;s Privatisation Authority in a &euro;1.5 billion transaction that fails simple transparency criteria. The government has failed to provide clear backgrounds on some of the partners comprising the winning bid for a 51% stake in this important Turkish enterprise. 
 
That bid was won by a newly-chartered Kazakh-Russian company, Transcentral Asia Petrochem Holding. It is composed of three partners: JSK Caspi Neft, a Kazk-based oil exploration firm; Investment Production Group Eurasia, reportedly a Kazak-owned and Russian-based real estate investor; and GK Troika Dialogue, a function of Moscow-based Troika Capital Partners that now has its first foreign holding in Petkim Petrokimya.
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&nbsp;The Russian Oil and Gas Report calls it Russia&rsquo;s fourth largest foreign investment ever, and says it is the largest Russian investment acquisition in Turkey. Immediately after the award was made, an international debt-rating agency put a &ldquo;negative watch&rdquo; on the acquisition, a pointed market signal regarding the lack of transparency. 
 
Those facts and many more are not lost on Petrol-İş, ICEM&rsquo;s oilworkers&rsquo; union affiliate in Turkey. Petrol-İş will once again argue in Turkish courts that this buy-out, a majority stake in a profitable enterprise that is key to the Turkish plastics supply chain, will harm the public good. The union has previously proven it can win its arguments in Turkish courts on privatisation matters, and this one contains solid facts that have many unanswered sub-facts. 
 
The Turkish Privatisation Authority opened bidding on Petkim Petrokimya on 16 March 2007. Seven consortiums were invited to submit further bids two months later. They included a partnership between Azerbaijan state oil company SOCAR and the Kazakh national oil/gas company KazMunagGas, and ones comprised of India Oil Co. and Carmel Olefins Ltd., 50% held by Israeli-based Oil Refineries Ltd. 
 
It came down to the SOCAR partnership and Transcentral Asia Petrochemical Holding bidding against each other in the final round. Within Transcentral, JSK Caspi Neft is the only partner with a track record in energy. And that is oil and gas exploration and development in the eastern Caspian. The Russian interests have no energy experience, apparently anywhere. 
 
A majority stake at this particular time is critical. The Turkish government began the sale of this enterprise, composed of two petrochem plants in Aliaga and Yarimka, in 2005, when it sold over the third of the company&rsquo;s stock in a public offering. Some 40% is now traded on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. The stake that Transcentral will win -- if it can get past Petrol-İş and several other legal challenges &ndash; consists of the 44% stake owned now by the Privatisation Authority and a 7% holding by Turkey&rsquo;s public pension monies.
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Petrol-İş&nbsp;demonstrates&nbsp;Against&nbsp;Non-Transparent Bid&nbsp; 
 

Even before Transcentral won the bidding, Petrol-İş and its members took to the streets to protect the 3,700 workers employed at Petkim Petrokimya. Marches and protests will be repeated as this privatisation becomes subject to the union&rsquo;s legal challenges, as well as full Turkish regulatory approval. Petrol-İş President Mustafa Oztaskin called into question the issue of the buyers&rsquo; financial stability in Turkey&rsquo;s press following 5 July&rsquo;s winning bid announcement. 
 
Turkey has seen a number of privatisation sales in recent years in many different sectors, as advised by the International Monetary Fund. Petkim Petrokimya is Turkey&rsquo;s only petrochemical plant, and it creates annual revenues of US$1.6 billion. It supplies most of Turkey with the raw and essential materials for the plastics, textile, and detergents markets. And one-quarter of output from workers at the two plants is then sold on export markets. This is one Turkish privatisation deal that will gain intense scrutiny in the coming months.

Petrochems: Transparency Suspect in Turkey’s Latest Petrol Privatising

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At the 61st United Nations General Assembly, on 13 September 2007, member nations formally adopted the important Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People, a UN milestone that was marked by 25 years of debate. The vote was 143 nations in favour, four against, with 11 abstentions. 
 
The four nations that rejected the Declaration are Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US. 
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The non-binding charter protects the human rights of 370 million native people, and sets out individual and collective rights to protect their lands and resources, as well as to maintain their unique cultures and traditions. The declaration includes provisions on fundamental needs, including food, health, and education. It also prohibits discrimination against indigenous peoples and promotes their full and effective participation in all matters that concern them. 
 
The UN&rsquo;s Human Rights Council adopted the Declaration in June 2006. The General Assembly deferred consideration of the Declaration late last year over member nations&rsquo; objections to language defining self-determination and indigenous people. 
 
The 107th and 108th Meetings of the 61st General Assembly produced the historic passage of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. UN Delegates from Peru introduced the Declaration. The 11 nations that abstained in the vote include: Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burundi, Colombia, Georgia, Kenya, Nigeria, Russia, Samoa, and Ukraine.

UN General Assembly Adopts Historic Indigenous Peoples Declaration

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Following the lead taken by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the ICEM has registered strong condemnation of the heavy jail sentences given to six labour activists by Burma&rsquo;s military junta. On 7 September, a closed trial inside Insein prison sentenced four of the activists to 28 years in prison, while two others received 20-year sentences. 
 
The ICEM calls the prison terms &ldquo;unjustified and scandalous.&rdquo; 
 
Four of the six were charged with attending a labour rights seminar at the American Centre of the US Embassy on 1 May 2007, and two others were unjustly convicted for bringing attention to the arrests days later. The six were found guilty of sedition and organising an unlawful gathering. 
The six men, all labour activists in their 20s, were among 30 Burmese citizens detained at the Labour Day event. While most of those attending were released within hours, Thurein Aung, Kyaw Kyaw, Shwe Joe, Wai Lin, Aung Naing Tun, and Nyi Nyi Zaw were held. On 4 May, Shwe Joe and Aung Naing Tun were released. 
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Thurein Aung, Wai Lin, Myo Min, and Kyaw Win were sentenced to 28 years, while Nyi Nyi Zaw and Kyaw Kyaw received 20-year prison terms. Kyaw Win and Myo Min were arrested on 10 May for travelling to the Thai-Burmese border to get word out of the country about the May Day arrests.&nbsp;
In the ICEM protest letter to the senior leader of the military junta, the global union federation stated that it &ldquo;learned all six men were found guilty of &lsquo;inciting hatred or contempt for the government&rsquo; during a trial held inside Rangoon&rsquo;s Insein prison, and that some were convicted for being members of &lsquo;illegal associations.&rsquo;&rdquo; 
 
The letter added, &ldquo;&hellip; detaining and sentencing workers who exercise their right to freedom of association is a clear violation of international labour standards, including ILO Convention 87, which has been ratified by your country.&rdquo; 
 
The Burmese junta has a long history of unwarranted attacks on the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma (FTUB), the legitimate labour organisation that defends workers&rsquo; rights in Burma. 
 
The ICEM demands the immediate and unconditional release of the six. The ICEM protest letter can be found <a href="/en/7-Asia-Pacific/2397-ICEM-protest-letter-to-Burmese-Junta">here</a>.

28-Year Prison Sentences Given to Labour Activists Inside Burma

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North American ICEM affiliate, United Steelworkers (USW), began its largest ever conference of women workers in Toronto, Ontario, yesterday. Over 1,000 trade union women from Canada and the US are expected at the four-day conference, which is entitled &ldquo;Women of Steel: Building Power, Taking Action.&rdquo; 
 
USW President Leo Gerard will address the conference today, 24 September. Also speaking will be Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of US presidential candidate John Edwards, who has won the endorsement of the USW, and progressive American blogger Arianna Huffington. Canadian Member of Parliament Libby Davies, from the New Democratic Party, will also address the conference. 
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Gerard will introduce to delegates the &ldquo;Protect Our Kids/Stop Toxic Imports&rdquo; campaign, which will be unveiled in Canada tomorrow, 25 September. 
 
Workshops will centre on engaging women in the work of the union, skills enhancement, work-life balance, political action, and global solidarity. The USW will host global trade union guests from Brazil, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Africa, and the UK. 
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&ldquo;Strong unions need women, and it is clear that women in every nation need strong unions,&rdquo; said USW Assistant to the President Leeann Anderson. USW Women of Steel Director Ann Flener added that union &ldquo;women know that in today&rsquo;s global economic society, solidarity must reach across nations to the furthest regions of the world. We must talk with each other, compare situations, and learn best practices from each other&rsquo;s experiences.&rdquo;

North American ‘Women of Steel’ Convene Largest Ever Women’s Conference

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ICEM affiliate in Mozambique, the National Union of Chemical, Rubber, Paper, and Print Workers (SINTIQUIGRA), has forged a four-union merger with transportation and textile workers&rsquo; unions, in an effort to strengthen the union movement of the country. 
 
The merger is partly in honour of Joaquim Fanheiro, former leader of SINTIQUIGRA, who died unexpectedly in March 2007 while serving as general secretary of the Mozambique Workers&rsquo; Organisation (OTM), the nation&rsquo;s leading national labour centre. The other merger partners are the Union of Textile and Footwear Workers&rsquo; (SINTIVEC), the National Union of Port and Railway Workers&rsquo; (SINPOCAF), and the Ports and Allied Dockworkers&rsquo; Union (SINPEOC).
A name for the union has not yet been determined, but a founding general assembly meeting will occur in November 2007 and will address that and other matters. 
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Union merger discussions in Mozambique began last spring between SINTIQUIGRA and SINTIVEC. They were expanded in the summer to include the transport and dockworkers&rsquo; unions. The combined membership of the four unions will be about 25,000. 
Comrade Fanheiro was a long-time trade union activist and main leader of SINTIUIGRA. He was a strong workers&rsquo; advocate in 1970-era production councils in Mozambique, which were predecessors to the OTM. Later, he became the distinguished leader of the OTM and played a key role in negotiations with the government over issues such as the annual increases to the statutory minimum wage and the revisions to Mozambique&rsquo;s labour code. 
 
Trade unions in Mozambique of late have been burdened by downsizings and redundancies, as many large companies have splintered their businesses off to smaller companies, which have cut staff and attempt to slash social costs. The four-union merger is expected to make the labour movement and the OTM stronger and more efficient.

Four-Union Mozambique Merger to Honour Labour Legacy of Joaquim Fanheiro

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ICEM affiliate in Trinidad and Tobago, the Oilfields Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (OWTU), staged a mass protest on 10 September over delays in bargaining between the union and the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission. The union members&rsquo; protest came at the electric authority&rsquo;s opening of a customer service centre at the company headquarters in Port-of-Spain. 
 
Management was celebrating the opening of a new automatic meter infrastructure and the utility&rsquo;s award of some TTD700 million in contracts for that system, as well as for a new power station. Much of that money will be used on contractors and contract labourers. 
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OWTU members, meanwhile, have been without a current collective agreement for over a year, and have been frustrated by salaries that are tied to 2005 levels at a time when Trinidad and Tobago&rsquo;s inflation rate is high. 
 
The last negotiations session was held in July, and the company&rsquo;s chairman said management was waiting for direction from the Ministry of Public Utilities. 
 
Meanwhile, another union in Trinidad and Tobago, the Public Service Association, staged another protest through a series of one-day work stoppages against the Water and Sewerage Authority. That occurred on 14 September, three days after a similar protest following a revised management proposal. Water and sewer workers are also protesting delays and a prolonged negotiations period. They are still attempting to resolve a 2005-2007 contract with the public utility, talks that only started in January 2007. 
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In a related workplace development in the country, five construction workers last week were hospitalised when they were overcome by gas at the state-owned Petrotrin&rsquo;s Point-a-Pierre refinery. All 700 construction workers were forced to down tools by what Petrotrin said was a leak from an alkaline plant. It marked the second time in two months that building workers at the refinery walked from their jobs in protest to health and safety concerns. 
 
Petrotrin is currently undergoing a gas optimisation modernisation, as well as a gas to liquids project at the west coast refinery. In early August, the state company dropped production by 15,000 barrels-per-day to 47,000 b/d due to safety concerns. That followed a May 2007 drop in crude production from offshore sites, after a gas explosion on an offshore rig in the Soldado field killed one contract worker, and injured two others.

OWTU Members at Electricity Authority in Trinidad and Tobago Protest

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