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Turkish has been added as the eighth language on the ICEM website. By clicking <a href="/tr">/tr</a>, Turkish-speaking and Turkish-reading trade unionists around the world can now follow the topical developments from the world of work, as reported on the ICEM site. 
 
This came about because of the work and assistance of ICEM&rsquo;s Turkish affiliates, particularly Petrol-İş. Many existing web-pages were translated into Turkish over the past several months, as well as the interface, including basic information on the ICEM, pages with information on ICEM activities, such as Contract and Agency Labour, Global Framework Agreements, HIV/AIDS, as well as many recent ICEM industry reports. 
<img height="66" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Through its Turkish homepage, the ICEM aims to continue updating the world&rsquo;s Turkish-speaking audience &ndash; in Turkey and beyond &ndash; on ICEM developments, as well as on relevant and useful news from ICEM&rsquo;s sectors. This new communication channel will also be used for updates on specific issues that are important to ICEM Turkish affiliates. Welcome, Turkish brothers and sisters!

ICEM Introduces Turkish Language News, Content to Its Website

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The ICEM is asking trade unionists to write protest letters to Unilever&rsquo;s vice president for Global External Affairs, drawing attention to trade union rights violations in Pakistan and India. The ICEM is assisting its sister Global Union Federation, the International Union of Food Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF), in protests to the company over its conduct at food and beverage plants. 
 
In November 2007, Unilever management at a factory in Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan, fired all but five of the plant&rsquo;s temporary workers, following a Pakistani union&rsquo;s announcement that it would allow membership to the workers and fight to secure permanent status for them. 
 
The fired workers were replaced by staff from a labour agency. The sacked workers were forced to sign termination letters in front of armed police and Elite Troops forces, who were called into the plant by local management.
<img height="100" src="" width="100" alt="" />
This latest incident coincides with an IUF complaint to the UK contact point over violations of the OECD&rsquo;s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. 
 
Additionally, Unilever managers at a plant in Assam, India, have actively undermined trade union leaders in that factory. Management has sponsored creation of a yellow union there in the course of a long lockout aimed at supplanting the legitimate trade union. 
 
A model letter can be found <a href="/index.php?id=7&amp;doc=2576&amp;la=EN">here</a>, that includes the name, address, and fax number of Unilever&rsquo;s Global External Affairs vice president. Please send a copy of your letter to ICEM&rsquo;s Chemicals Officer, Kemal &Ouml;zkan, at <a href="mailto:kemal.ozkan@icem.org">kemal.ozkan@icem.org</a>.

ICEM Encourages Unilever Protest Letters on Company’s Pakistan, India Conduct

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BHP Billiton&rsquo;s hostile bid for mining rival Rio Tinto escalated last week, just prior to a 6 February deadline by the UK Takeover Panel to either increase a November 2007 bid or walk away from the takeover for a period of six months. BHP Billiton increased its share-swap offer by 13%, offering 3.4 shares of BHP stock for one Rio Tinto share. 
 
In November, BHP offered a three-to-one share swap, meaning the price of the takeover would be US$120 billion. This latest unsolicited bid raised that price to US$147 billion. If successful, the combined company would dominate world production and sales of bauxite, coal, copper, diamonds, lead, silver, titanium, and uranium. It would also rank a high second, behind Brazilian Vale, in iron ore output, but would control vital markets of Australian ore destined for China. 
<img height="50" src="" width="100" alt="" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="51" src="" width="102" alt="" />
The proposed takeover would represent the world&rsquo;s second biggest corporate takeover. Only Vodafones&rsquo;s US$172 billion buy-up of Mannesmann in the year 2000 surpasses BHP&rsquo;s current bid to Rio Tinto shareholders. Rio Tinto executives said the latest offer still undervalues the assets of the Australian- and UK-based company. 
BHP was pressed to increase its offer following a 1 February purchase of some US$14 billion of Rio&rsquo;s London-traded shares by Aluminium Corp. of China (Chinalco), a state-run mining company. Chinalco put up US$12.8 billion, while US-based Alcoa put in US$1.2 billion. Together, they now own 9% of Rio Tinto, and the share price paid increased the valuation of Rio Tinto by 23%. The premium share purchase was seen as a blocking move by Chinalco that is sure to complicate a further, enhanced bid by BHP Billiton. 
 
According to Sweden&rsquo;s Raw Materials Group, a combined BHP Billiton/Rio Tinto would control a full 17% of world production of mined resources. If constituted under the latest bid, Rio Tinto shareholders would hold 44% of the combined company, an increase from the 36% under terms of the offer posed in early November.

BHP Billiton Raises Stakes in Pursuit of Rio Tinto

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The British labour movement came together last week to push a Private Member&rsquo;s Bill into committee stage of the House of Commons. That bill, authored by Labour MP Andrew Miller, would give labour agency workers the same rights and benefits as full-time, permanent workers. 
 
On 6 February, labour unions, led by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), held a mass day of lobby at Westminster, spotlighting a second hearing of Miller&rsquo;s bill that saw trade unions produce gruesome testimonies of abuse by agency workers themselves. British work sectors &ndash; from service to foods to industrial &ndash; have been flooded by labour agency firms offering low-wage, no-strings-attached workers to employers.
<img height="50" alt="" src="" width="100" />
&nbsp;Last week&rsquo;s turnout moved the Private Member&rsquo;s Bill to a House hearing, which will occur on 22 February. The day of lobby also came six days after the Labour Party&rsquo;s Executive Committee voted to endorse it, an action that Labour Party Prime Minister Gordon Brown cannot ignore without serious fall-out from trade unions. 
 
&ldquo;The Labour Party committed to introduce UK legislation to protect agency workers before the last election,&rdquo; said Chairman Tony Dubbins of the Trade Unions for Labour Organisation, &ldquo;and now we and 1.4 million agency workers in the UK&rdquo; have been promised it again. &ldquo;Now we need the government to act on that promise by backing Andrew Miller&rsquo;s bill.&rdquo; 
 
But that may not come easy, just like it didn&rsquo;t during the Blair government, despite a Labour Party commitment for equal rights to all workers contained in the 2004 Warwick Agreement. British business groups are opposing the measure, claiming it would hold back achieving flexible labour markets, and often, serve as a means for gaining a full-time job. 

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said, &ldquo;Far from providing a bridge to permanent work, this runs the risk of creating a whole underclass of temporary workers who cannot get permanent work. Many employers are using agencies to replace secure jobs with reasonable terms and conditions with insecure, badly paid agency staff.&rdquo; 
The TUC points out that employer&rsquo; interests will advance when temporary workers gain equal workplace rights, at the same time as receiving fair pay and social benefits. The union federation said there is a disturbing lack of awareness among employers on how maximizing experience and skills of workers out of labour agencies can benefit their enterprises. 
Besides Barber, the day of lobby also featured Tony Woodley, Joint General Secretary of Unite, and Bill Hayes, General Secretary of the Communications Workers&rsquo; Union. Woodley called passage of the agency worker bill a &ldquo;defining moment&rdquo; for the British government &ldquo;because people are looking for equal treatment.&rdquo;
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In Ireland, trade unions are pressuring their government to stop acting as a barrier to a European Directive for equal treatment for contract and agency workers. Blair Horan, representing the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said trade unions will withhold affirmative support to the Irish government for passage of the Lisbon Treaty referendum until the government reverses its agency-worker stand in Brussels. Ireland, Germany, Poland, and the UK have blocked a European Directive on Agency Workers.

UK Push for Law Granting Equal Rights to Temp Workers

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In August 2007, 13 ICEM affiliates created an ICEM Turkish Coordination Committee. At that time, Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) was defined as one of the priorities on which joint activities would occur. 
 
In cooperation with Germany&rsquo;s Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), a Turkish national conference of those affiliates was held on 31 January &ndash; 1 February, 2008, in İstanbul on CAL. Some 80 trade unionists, journalists, and university professors attended. 
The conference opened with a speech by Mustafa Kumlu, an ICEM Executive Committee member and President of the Turkish Electricity, Water, and Gas Workers&rsquo; Union, Tes-Iş. He is also the current president of the country&rsquo;s biggest national labour centre, T&uuml;rk-Iş. The meeting also saw the active participation of ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, and FES&rsquo;s İstanbul representative, Bettina Luise R&uuml;rup. 
<img height="212" alt="" src="" width="350" />
ICEM's Kemal &Ouml;zkan and Manfred Warda, EMCEF's Reinhard Reibsch
After presentations by ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan on the the Global Union Federation&rsquo;s CAL Project, by the ILO&rsquo;s Slava Egorov on ILO actions on contract labour, the employment relationship, and agency work, and by EMCEF General Secretary Reinhard Reibsch on the European situation, the conference heard national experiences from Germany, Sweden, and The Netherlands. 
 
In Germany, IGBCE&rsquo;s Michael Wolters reported there are now 630,000 agency workers employed by 19,000 labour agencies in the country. This constitutes 10-15 % of the total workers in industries in which the German union operates. Agency workers earn 30 % less than permanent workers. 
 
According to Hans Palmqvist of Swedish IF Metall, there is an Authorisation Board in Sweden that controls 450 private agencies, employing 43,000 workers. A Swedish trade union has managed to reach a collective agreement with one such agency, C&amp;L. 
<img height="142" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The agency labour issue is also a burning issue inside The Netherlands. Celil Coban and Osman Elmaci from FNV Bondgenoten, both Turkish-originated trade union officials for the union, reported that only 1,200 agencies out of 12,000 are operating with official certification. Even when FNV Bondgenoten negotiates with employment agencies for collective agreements, wages remain low and working conditions are sub-standard for agency workers. 
 
The three examples from Germany, Sweden, and Holland clearly shows that the unionisation rates for agency workers are far less than those for permanent workers. 
 
The conference also heard detailed reports and analyses on Contract and Agency Labour in Turkey. During the conference, a major explosion at an unregistered factory operating in the black economy resulted in 23 deaths. 
 
According to statistics, the number of workers employed in the informal economy in Turkey is 4.7 million, according to Mustafa &Ouml;ztaskin of ICEM affiliate Petrol-Iş. Dating to the 1980s, the problem in Turkey is that new owners in privatised sectors have used subcontracting in order to eliminate union representation. 
 
Metin Bozkurt, Organising Secretary of Cement Workers Union, &Ccedil;imse-Iş, reported that multinational companies in the cement industry use subcontractors in all facets of production. Privatisation has also caused problems in energy, reported Murat Aytemiz, Vice-President of Tes-Iş. According to Aytemiz, some 50% of the workforce in the energy sector is employed by subcontracting firms. 
 
The situation in the mining sector was defined as thus by Dr. Fikret Sazak, Director of Education Department of Mine Workers Union, Maden-Iş: &ldquo;Our mining areas have become mole holes after privatisation and subcontracting.&rdquo; He reported that contract labour in pits is overwhelming, for example, in a main coal mining area, 2,750 out of 10,500 miners are subcontractors.&nbsp;
<img height="285" src="" width="380" alt="" />
In public services as well, subcontracting and agency labour is a major factor in lowering salaries and weakening the working environment. Ismail Hakki Kurt of Belediye-Iş pointed out that &ldquo;trade unions have real difficulties in bargaining because permanent workers are the minority, while agency workers are not unionised.&rdquo; 
In the glass industry, according to Can Safak, Director of the Collective Bargaining Department at Kristal-Iş, subcontracting first appeared in nonqualified and side jobs. Kristal-Iş tried to tackle the problem through reclassification of positions. The union also managed to get language in the sectoral level collective glass agreement, stating that no subcontractor can be employed at the production level. 
 
At the end of the discussions, it was agreed that a series of joint activities on organising, in general, would be undertaken. And then, specifically, the issue of Contract and Agency Labour in Turkey will now come under the ICEM&rsquo;s global project. 
 
<a href="/index.php?id=73&amp;doc=2593&amp;la=EN">To access presentations at the Conference, click here</a>.

ICEM Turkish Affiliates Gather to Discuss Contract and Agency Labour

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As reported by the ICEM in its newsletter on 28 January 2008 (<a href="/en/?id=78&amp;doc=2564&amp;la=EN">click here</a>), private-sector strikes slated for 6 February across Slovenia were cancelled when agreement over wages was initialled between employers and the nation&rsquo;s largest labour federation, Zveza Svobodnih Sindikatoc Slovenije (ZSSS), on 25 January. 
 
The ICEM has been informed by its affiliate, KNG Chemical, Non-Metallic, Rubber Union, a ZSSS affiliate, that when it came time to sign the social agreement on 1 February, Slovenia&rsquo;s Chamber of Commerce and industry associations backed away from the pact that called for across-the-board increases of 5.6%, nearly equalling the inflation rate of the Central European country.
In calling for European Union and global trade union support toward renewal of a general strike, ZSSS President Du&scaron;an Semolič stated: &ldquo;Although the social dialogue has reached a dead end, the employers&rsquo; associations continue with manipulation in companies and are trying to enforce the agreements on pay adjustments in which a very low percentage of adjustment is offered to workers.&rdquo; Employers are also implementing no-strike agreements within these individual companies. 
<img height="50" alt="" src="" width="100" border="1" />
The 6 February statement by ZSSS can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0802Slovenia.pdf">here</a>. 
 
Since mid-2007, trade unions and employers&rsquo; groups have been working on an agreement to raise base wages in order to counter Slovenia&rsquo;s spiralling inflation rate, as well as agreement on holiday bonuses and other remuneration issues. That agreement was nearly reached on 25 January, averting a mass strike that likely would have eclipsed the one on 17 November 2007, in which 70,000 workers marched through the streets of Ljubljana. 
 
But that agreement was broken by employers in a serious social breach. The ICEM stands supportively behind Slovenia&rsquo;s workers in all sectors at a time when their pay has not kept pace with rising prices brought on by the nation&rsquo;s entry into the European Union. 
 
Also in Slovenia, the ICEM, together with a dozen Central European affiliates, took action to support KNG-affiliated workers at glass plants, brave workers of the company Steklarna Hrastnik.

Strike Threat Renewed in Slovenia as Employers Renege on Deal

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Opposition coalition parliamentarians last week threatened to derail the elimination of Australian Work Agreements (AWAs), a cornerstone to former Prime Minister John Howard&rsquo;s draconian WorkChoices laws, adopted in 2005. Members of Parliament from the Liberal and National Parties caucused on 7 February and decided on a strategy to separate individual work contracts signed with employers from repeal of WorkChoices. 
 
The Labour Party government of Kevin Rudd is expected to present&nbsp;a sweeping industrial relations rollback bill to the House of Representatives on Wednesday, 13 February. That bill would repeal WorkChoices and also replace AWAs with interim arrangements for new individual employment contracts until a fairer industrial relations system is operational in 2010.
<img height="92" alt="" src="" width="180" />
The transition bill to be introduced this week would outlaw&nbsp;creation of new AWAs, and replace the fairness test of individual agreements contained in WorkChoices with a more suitable&nbsp;no-disadvantage test. 
The effort to preserve AWAs is led by Julie Bishop, the Liberal Party&rsquo;s deputy leader and industrial relations spokesperson. Bishop comes from Western Australia, a state in which major mining houses have used AWAs to circumvent collective bargaining agreements. 
 
The separation of AWAs from Labour&rsquo;s rollback bill could delay progressive reform of the country&rsquo;s industrial relations statutes. Australia&rsquo;s Senate is still controlled by opposition parliamentarians until 30 June 2008. Delays to the Labour Party agenda could mean thousands more workers will be subjected to AWAs in 2008. 
 
Australian trade unions have demanded that all Members of Parliament adhere to voters wishes made in November 2007, when the Howard government was crushed in national elections. Howard&rsquo;s enactment of WorkChoices was the number one issue by voters in forcing his ouster. 
<img height="51" src="" width="137" alt="" />
&ldquo;The Liberal Party&rsquo;s decision to support AWAs is an insult to the Australian people who voted overwhelmingly to reject WorkChoices at last year&rsquo;s election,&rdquo; said Sharon Burrow, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). &ldquo;AWAs were the centrepiece and cruel heart of the Howard government&rsquo;s unfair WorkChoices laws. 
 
&ldquo;With the Liberals planning to oppose the Labour government&rsquo;s clear mandate to scrap WorkChoices,&rdquo; she added, &ldquo;many more Australian families risk being hurt by AWA individual contracts.&rdquo; 
 
Research presented recently in Australia reveals that employers with fewer workers tend to use AWAs to cut labour costs, while larger employers use them to reduce the influence of trade unions. The research paper, commissioned by Industrial Relations Victoria and presented at an early February conference hosted by LaTrobe University, found that the average wage of a worker on an AWA is 7.3% less than a worker covered by a collective agreement.

Australia’s Opposition Plots to Preserve Individual Work Agreements

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This week, a deadline will expire for multinational oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria&rsquo;s downstream sector. By Thursday, 14 February, Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc. and a handful of other companies must cease and desist on a range of anti-union activities, or face industrial action from senior staff. 
 
PENGASSAN, ICEM&rsquo;s white-collar oil and gas affiliate in Nigeria, issued the ultimatum at its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting late in January in Kaduna. It singled out Mobil Oil Nigeria, Oando, Chevron, and African Petroleum Plc. as targets. The union&rsquo;s communiqu&eacute; stated it would &ldquo;vehemently oppose the attempt to extinguish unions in these companies.&rdquo;
<img height="50" alt="" src="" width="100" />
At Mobil Oil Nigeria, wholly owned by the world&rsquo;s largest oil company, US-based ExxonMobil, the union-busting may be the most blatant. Despite bargaining with PENGASSAN through much of 2007 over retrenchments and reaching some agreements with the union, Mobil Oil Nigeria has reneged on those agreements. It has changed terms of lump-sum payments contained in a separation plan with PENGASSAN, and it is denying state-mandated pension benefits to less senior workers who are getting the sack. 
 
And so far this year, in a data systems restructuring, which PENGASSAN and the company agreed would cost 42 jobs, ExxonMobil has unilaterally raised the count to 50 to include trade union activists. 
 
PENGASSAN General Secretary Bayo Olowoshile said the company serves as the leader in the Niger Delta in undermining social standards, in violating the rule of law, and &ldquo;with indiscriminate firings ostensibly to weaken or destroy the labour union.&rdquo; He added the company has also failed to adhere to Nigeria&rsquo;s Pension Reform Act, which mandates a level of benefits to staff made redundant who have less than ten years service and are under age 45. 
<img height="101" alt="" src="" width="220" />
&ldquo;Mobil management is essentially holding the union ransom,&rdquo; Olowoshile said, referring to a company strategy to drain the union financially. &ldquo;They prefer matters go to the industrial court rather than find a mutually acceptable win-win resolution in the interest of industrial peace.&rdquo;
In July 2007, Mobil Oil Nigeria violated best practice social code by contacting and coercing PENGASSAN members individually over separation terms. At the same time, the company was in social talks with PENGASSAN over redundancies. The voluntary termination letters that were offered to individual workers was a ploy to reduce the statutory amount of separation benefits. 
 
PENGASSAN has also warned to Royal Dutch Shell, which currently has a plan to reduce its Nigerian workforce by combining business functions of three subsidiaries operating in the country. The union said industrial action could occur against Shell&rsquo;s upstream companies if the company does not adequately complete talks. 
 
In other action taken at PENGASSAN&rsquo;s NEC meeting in January, the union condemned the non-existent security practices at Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.&rsquo;s (NNPC) Okrika Jetty in Rivers State. On 19 December at the NNPC loading bay near its Port Harcourt refinery, dynamite used by people disguised as militants killed eight persons, including a policeman and a PENGASSAN member. The criminals were bunkering oil. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="113" />
&nbsp;PENGASSAN President Peter Esele 

PENGASSAN said &ldquo;porous surveillance&rdquo; and lack of any &ldquo;security network and intelligence operations at the loading and discharging facility leaves much to be desired. We are seriously grieved that a criminally minded group could gain easy access without proper challenge,&rdquo; said the union. 
Meanwhile, PENGASSAN President Peter Esele has called on the Nigerian National Assembly to pass tougher laws against unfair labour practices committed by oil and gas companies. In an interview with a Nigerian newspaper, Esele said punitive measures must be imposed on companies engaged in contract staffing, casualisation, and violation of expatriate quotas.
&ldquo;We are sounding a note of warning for companies to desist from it, or risk being sanctioned by a committee that would be empowered by appropriate laws to checkmate violators,&rdquo; he told This Day publication. Esele last month was named by President Umaru Musa Yar&rsquo;Adua to sit on the seven-member government board of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a panel mandated through a 2007 law.

ExxonMobil Pack Leader in Breeching Social Code in Nigeria’s Oil Patch

Mr. Miguel Pestana 
VP Global Affairs, Unilverer Plc
By Fax: 44-20-78.22.59.51 
By e-mail: <a href="mailto:miguel.pestana@unilever.com">miguel.pestana@unilever.com</a>
 
Dear Mr. Pestana,
The (name of union), representing Unilever employees in (places/countries), wishes to convey our concern over ongoing violations of international labour standards and trade union rights by Unilever in Asia. 
 
We have followed the progress of the IUF's submission to the UK National Contact Point of the OECD concerning the closure of the company's Sewri factory in Mumbai, India and the attempts to achieve a negotiated solution with the trade union representing the 700 dismissed employees. 
Following the intervention of the NCP, the company had committed to finding a negotiated solution, yet has repeatedly postponed meetings with the union. Two months have passed since the last meeting (November 27) and the company has yet to propose a date for the next meeting. Since the Mumbai workers have received no compensation to date following their many years of service, we find this footdragging intolerable and unconscionable - and an offense against Unilever employees everywhere. 
 
In Assam, India, the company locked out the entire workforce at its Doom Dooma plant last year, and as a condition of resuming employment forced the workers to sign statements renouncing their union membership and seeking membership in the company-sponsored union. 
While Assam Unilever management has denied this in response to the IUF's OECD submission, local management continues to use these unlawful documents in support of its claims to the authorities that the &quot;union&quot; it sponsors represents a majority, It is also using these documents obtained under coercion in support of its deductions of membership fees in the organization it sponsors. 
We find this particularly cynical in view of the fact that management in our country would presumably not engage in such practices. Does Unilever have varying approaches to complying with international labour standards, depending on the country it is operating in? Our members are increasingly asking this question. 
 
We are also shocked to learn that brutal anti-union practices continue at the Unilever factory in Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan, which are also the subject of an IUF submission to the UK National Contact Point for the OECD. 
The union at the plant sought to open its membership to temporary workers and support their efforts to be reclassified as permanent employees after nine months of continuous service, in accordance with the law. Management's response was to fire all temporary workers at the plant and replace them immediately with agency workers, who have no legal possibility to ever qualify for permanent status. 
Following these mass firings, management continues to harass union members and officers. Union officers, shop stewards and activist members have been frequently transferred from one post to another and management is now threatening them with replacement by agency workers. 
The union president is being denied access to his members, and union members received lower salary adjustments at the beginning of 2008. Again, we note that such practices would presumably not be tolerated by Unilever in our country - why then are they being pursued in India and Pakistan? Is it because the law is weaker? Because they take place away from the spotlight of those scrutinizing the company's corporate social responsibility practices? 
We are watching, and call upon you to act to ensure that these practices are halted. In all three cases, Unilever management should enter into good faith negotiations with the unions representing employees in order to achieve negotiated solutions to all outstanding problems. We will, for our part, continue to closely follow these developments and keep our own members informed. 
Yours sincerely,

Model support letter Unilever Pakistan

英国で、イメリーズ生産拠点移転反対キャンペーン拡大、 
運輸一般労組 (TGWU) は英国南西部にあるイメリーズの事業所English China Clay (ECC)に働く８００人の労働者の解雇反対運動についてICEMなどの労働組織の協力をえた。TGWU は1999年にECCを買収したこのフランス系建材企業が労働者を解雇すること対抗するため、総合的な住民キャンペーンとグローバルキャンペーンを計画した。 
 
イメリーズの労働者を組織している他の組合、AmicusとGMB は TGWUとともに地方自治体及び政府に対し同社が工場を閉鎖し、従業員を解雇した場合の経済へのインパクトについて説明した。組合側は８００人の雇用機会は保障するとした２年前の公約遵守に関しイメリーズに外圧をかけるため、住民に事情を認識してもらおうと、集会、署名運動などキャンペーンを実施することを決めた。 
また、このキャンペーンの結果、８００人の雇用を守るための何らかの措置を政府が取ることも期待されている。 ICEMはグローバルレベルでこのキャンペーンの盛り上がりを支援する予定だ。 
 
イメリーズのリストラ案は英国南部の脆弱な経済にとってはまさに爆弾宣言となった。同社の労働者は同地域の平均年間所得より４５００ポンド高い、２３０００ポンドの年間給与を得ている。イメリーズは、エネルギーコストの高騰を理由に、２００８年の初めからECCのすべての鉱山事業所及びコーンウォール、デボン、リーモアにある 加工工場の閉鎖を開始し、カオリンの生産と製紙産業用の上質コーティング生産をブラジルに移転する、と７月初めに発表した。 
 
７月１１日に開らかれた英国下院の臨時議会において、英国南部選出のマシュー・テイラーは同地方の５世帯の内１世帯が今回のリストラ案の影響を直接受け、間接的影響を考慮する場合、３世帯の内１世帯がインパクトを受ける、また、同社に働く８００人の労働者の他に、同地方の購買力低下の結果、８００人の雇用機会も喪失されることになるだろう、と発言した。 
 
イメリーズの欧州労使協議会は、１００人の組合員が働くフレンスの事業所の閉鎖と英国での大量解雇を非難し、 生産拠点をハンガリーとブラジルに移転するという今回の経営戦略はまさに利益志向の戦略である、とする声明を出した。 
 
さらに、欧州労使協議会は、優れた事業成績を上げ、財務も良好な状況にあるイメリーズに対し、フランスと英国にもたらされる社会的インパクトの責任を取るよう求めるとともに、労使対話の場を持つよう求めた。また、同委員会はハンガリーとブラジルの労働者の雇用条件、ことに労使関係及び安全衛生問題について大変憂虜する、と表明した。 
 
開示された２００６年第一四半期の財務状況によれば、イメリーズはエネルギー価格の高騰の影響を全く受けていない。売上高は２００５年の同時期と比較して 10.8%伸びており、経常利益も 13.2%増えている。 
 
NOPEFの石油サービス事業スト、今日斡旋調停 
 
１か月続いているノルウェー石油労組のストの結果、ノルウェーの石油・ガス生産量は減少し始めている。政府はスト開始前に調停を試みたが、今日、二回目の斡旋調停が入ることになった。 
 
８７人のNOPEFの組合員が参加している今回のストはノルウェーエネルギー産業内で締結されている協約レベルに全国石油サービス事業の協約を調和させること、特に労働条件条項を調和させることをを求める戦略的ストである。 
 
スト労働者はHalliburton, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Weatherford 及びOceaneeringの各社に雇用されている。また、Aker Kvaerner, Geoservices,及びAcergyなどの他の石油サービス事業会社にもストの影響が出ている。スタットオイル、コノコフィリップス、シェル、エクソンモービル、シェブロン及びノルスクヒドロなどは掘削作業、探油作業、保守作業に深刻な支障が出ている。 
 
スタットオイルのスノーレ及びストラットフォードのプラットフォーム並びにスニュービット及びクリスティン油田では作業が中止された。また、このストの結果、ノルスクヒドロのヘイドルン及びオセベルグのプラットフォーム及びコノコフィリップスのエコフィスクのプラットフォームでは作業ペースがスローダウンした。 
 
チャドのエクソンモービル労働者、再度スト突入 
 
チャドの石油油田労働者は先週、再度、Esso-Tchadで３日間ストを行使した。チャドのナショナルセンターに加入する石油労組は、１日２０万バレル送油するパイプでつながれている隣国のカメルーンの石油労働者と同レベルの賃金を要求している。 
 
チャドーカメルーン間のパイプラインは現在フルに稼動できる状態となっており、このパイプラインで多額の利益を享受しているエクソンモービル、マレーシアのペトロナス、及び米国のシェブロンは世銀とチャド政府の援助金問題の係争を巻き添えた形だ。石油各社は膠着状態になっている開発援助金問題を利用している。 
 
この争議の問題はチャド南部にあるドハ油田の石油労働者は賃金格差及びその他の労働条件問題の解決に向けて経営側と交渉したいと考えているのだが、Esso-Tchadの経営側が誠実な姿勢で交渉しようとしない点である。また、２００３年に石油生産が開始された際に合意した石油労働者キャリア上進計画を経営側がまったく無視し、実施していないことも争点となっている。 
 
４２０人の石油労働者は経営側が組合側の要求に応じない場合には、１０日間ストを行使するとしている。石油労働者の第一波ストは７月４日から６日まで、第二波ストは７月１８日から２０日まで実施された。 
 
世銀とチャドの係争の発端は昨年の石油歳入管理法改正で、その結果、世銀の資金融資･返済の条件が変更された。世銀は資金融資と援助金の送金をストップする形で対応した。７月１４日、世銀とチャド政府は、チャド政府は当該法を修正し、石油歳入の７０％を貧困撲滅対策に充当するなどの条件で合意に達した。 
 
チャドーカメルーン間のパイプラインの関連で、２０００年から２００３年にかけて労働組合権と人権問題が起きた。HIV/AIDSの問題はその１例としてあげることができる。チャドの有病率は５,５％であるが、このパイプライン地域の住民の場合、有病率が１９．８％となっているのが現状だ。 
 
チリのEscondida 銅鉱山労働者、スト突入準備 
 
７月２２日、Escondida労組と世界最大の銅鉱業会社間の交渉が再開した。労使交渉は６月２１日に団体交渉以降、賃金問題で暗礁にあがっていた。 
 
現行協約は発効が８月２日で切れる。Escondida従業員２０５２人、つまり９６％の従業員を組織する組合は経営側が示した賃金最終案について７月２８日に投票を行う、と７月２１日に発表した。.組合はすでにスト権を確立している。 
 
７月初め、経営側はチリの物価上昇率に合わせ１．５％の賃上げ案を示したが、労働者たちは作業規則に厳格に従った作業を実施することで対抗した。その結果、生産量は１０％落ちた。組合側は１３％の賃上げと銅価格高騰を背景にした単発ボーナスの支給を要求している。 
 
銅価格の高騰とEscondidaが所有する２ヶ所の銅鉱山事業所での生産量が昨年１５％伸びた事実、並びにEscondia近郊地域はチリの他の地域より物価が１０％高い事実を指摘し、組合側は今回の賃上げを要求している。.. 
 
Minera Escondida Ltd　は昨年１億２７００トンの銅と陰極銅を生産した。これは世界銅生産量の８％に当たる。また、同社は１８万２４７２オンスの金も生産した。同社の株式はBHP Billitonが57.5%、リオティントが30%、三菱商事が筆頭会社となっている日本の合弁会社が10%、世銀のInternational Finance Corp.が 2.5%所有している。 
 
パキスタン労組、労働法改定に反駁 
 
パキスタンの主要ナショナルセンター５組織は、労働法改定で労働基準が１７世紀レベルに劣化するとし、全国各地で大規模な抗議運動を展開している。５組織はデモ行進、抗議文や文書の配布、７月２０日に予定されている１日ハンストへの参加を呼びかけた。 
 
１ヶ月前、下院は、上院の承認を受けず、パキスタンの労働法案を通過させた。この結果、一日の労働時間が増え、時間外手当が減り、時間外手当を支給されない契約労働者という新しいカテゴリー労働者が創出されることになった。 
 
時間外手当支給なしの契約労働の合法化により、短期契約労働者として多くの労働者が今後労働市場に参加する道が開かれた。労働法案の１つの条項が修正された結果、１日の労働時間は８時間から１２時間に増えた。 
 
他の改正事項はこれまで義務化されていた休日休業の廃止である。この結果、働く女性の労働時間数が増え、家族と過ごす時間が減ることになった。また、今回の法改正の影響で、工場法も修正された。その結果、これまでは、女性は日の出前また日没後に就労することが禁止されていたが、法改正の結果、２２時まで２日勤シフトに就業することができるようになった。 
 
パキスタンの労働諸組織は今回の法改定は非人道的であり、国際労働基準とILO条約の侵害であるとともに、パキスタン憲法の精神に合致しないものである、と主張している。パキスタン国内のオピニオンリーダーらも今回の改正のプロセスは憲法に違反しているため、非合法であり、労働者搾取、特に底辺層の労働者への搾取が頻繁に行われることになろう、としている。. 
 
南北アメリカの鉱業安全調査が進捗 
 
今年１月２日に米国のウエストバージニア州のサゴ炭鉱で起きた爆発事故と２月１９日にメキシコのコアフイラ州のGrupo Mexico パスタデコンチョNo.8炭鉱で起きた爆発事故の調査が進んでいる。政府の安全検査が徹底していなかったこと、企業側に安全文化が欠如していた事実が事故の原因として明確になった。 
 
先週メキシコ政府のナショナル人権員会が発行した報告書は、２００４年労働省はGrupo Mexicoのミネラメキシカーナ炭鉱で４８の重大問題点を確認したが、爆発事故の１２日前まで会社側は何の対策措置も取っていなかった、と指摘している。２月に起きた爆発では６５人の炭鉱労働者が死亡した。その大半は訓練を受けず、適正な酸素マスクの支給も受けていない契約労働者であった。また、メキシコの鉱山金属労組の２５人あまりの労働者も死亡した。 
 
ナショナル人権員会のスポークスマンは、惨事が起きた炭鉱の労働条件及び会社側が安全基準を守っていない事実について十分承知している、と述べた。政府は発火及び地下坑内シグナルシステム並びにガスとオイルの漏出、煙探知機の欠陥についても承知している。 
 
米国では、１２人の炭鉱労働者が死亡したサゴ炭鉱に州政府と連邦政府の事故調査団が立ち入り検査し、会社側が安全訓練を受けていない労働者に訓練を受けたことにし、受講証明書にサインをさせ、文書を捏造していた事実を確認した。サゴ炭鉱はWolf Run Mining Co.の所有だが、米国に本社を置く投資会社International Coal Group (IGC)が破産した東部炭鉱会社を買い上げて設置した会社だ。 
 
ペンシルバニアの新聞会社、Pittsburgh Post-Gazetteの調査でも、サゴ炭鉱の安全避難室はメタンガスの爆発に耐久性を持たない素材で建設されていることがわかっている。 
 
サゴ炭鉱労働者やその家族が全米鉱山労組に対し米国鉱業安全衛生法の下で実施される法的に拘束される事故調査チームに入るよう要請していたにも関わらす、ICG社は警備員を使ってUMWAの事故調査担当者らの入坑を阻んでいた。地方裁判所の裁定が出た後すぐ、ICG社は控訴したが、バージニア州リッチモンド地方裁判所は控訴を却下した。 
 
７月半ばに中国の炭鉱で事故多発 
 
中国の各地の炭鉱で、７月半ば、多くの死亡事故が起きた。１週間あまりの期間に、６ヶ所の炭鉱で１００あまりの労働者が命を失った。 
 
最も多くの死亡者を出したのは中国陝西省リンシー郡にあるリンジアジュアン炭鉱で７月１５日に起きた石炭塵の爆発事故であった。この事故で５７人の炭鉱労働者が死亡し、避難できたのは６人の炭鉱労働者だけであった。また、同じ７月１５日に中国中部の湖南省のシェンジアワン炭鉱で発生した鉄砲水で１４人の労働者が亡くなった。地下の坑内にいたのは１人の労働者だけであったが、救援に入った労働者らも鉄砲水に遭い、命を落とした。 
 
さらに、７月１５日、貴州省安順近郊にあるピアンポユアン村営炭鉱で発生した洪水で１８人の炭鉱労働者が亡くなった。７月１６日、四川省ジュンリアン郡にあるリラン炭鉱で起きた事故で８人が死亡した。この事故では３４人の労働者は避難することができた。 
 
陝西省ルリアン市のドンチュアン安炭鉱で７月１０日に起きた坑内洪水事故の場合、１０人の炭鉱労働者は逃げることができたが、８人が命を奪われた。救援隊は２０００㎥の水をポンプでくみ上げなければならなかった。７月８日、陝西省リウリン郡近郊の炭鉱で６人の炭鉱労働者が死亡した。これらの労働者は洪水で逃げ遅れたと推測される。

ICEM InBrief ２００６年7月24日 ６1号

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ICEM InBrief ２００６年7月24日６1号

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ICEM Introduces Turkish Language News, Content to Its Website

ICEM Encourages Unilever Protest Letters on Company’s Pakistan, India Conduct

BHP Billiton Raises Stakes in Pursuit of Rio Tinto

UK Push for Law Granting Equal Rights to Temp Workers

ICEM Turkish Affiliates Gather to Discuss Contract and Agency Labour

Strike Threat Renewed in Slovenia as Employers Renege on Deal

Australia’s Opposition Plots to Preserve Individual Work Agreements

ExxonMobil Pack Leader in Breeching Social Code in Nigeria’s Oil Patch

Model support letter Unilever Pakistan

ICEM InBrief ２００６年7月24日 ６1号

ICEM InBrief ２００６年7月24日６1号