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ICEM President and Australian CFMEU National Secretary John Maitland officiated at a remembrance 4 April of the 1,600 miners who lost their lives in the mining areas of New South Wales dating back to 1801. The remembrance was the ninth such observance at the United Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation House in Cessnock. CFMEU Northern Mining &amp; Energy Division President Peter Murray said it is important to demonstrate respect and condolences to families who have lost loves ones in the mines and as a result of hazardous mine work.

Australian Mine Union Marks Death Toll in NSW

US refinery workers of BP in Whiting, Indiana, will take their case for preserving health care benefits to the AGM of the company in London this week. Members and officials from affiliate PACE will ask BP managers and shareholders 15 April why a firm based in a nation that guarantees universal health care to all citizens is taking advantage of a US system in which health insurance is unaffordable and unattainable for 45 million citizens. Although a collective agreement between BP and PACE Local 6-1 in Whiting does not expire until February 2006, the company is using a health care re-opener in mid-term to demand a 10% hike in out-of-pocket costs for current workers and retirees. BP seeks to increase what workers and retirees now pay for health care from 20% to 30%, and it seeks to eliminate health coverage altogether for retirees hired after 1 April 2004.

PACE US Workers Take Health Care Issue to BP’s AGM

The NUM in South Africa said it would withdraw from bargaining and the current work-term agreement it has with Harmony Gold Mining Ltd. if means are not found to reduce Harmony&rsquo;s projected job cuts. Harmony announced outside of talks on 2 April that it was closing six shafts due to insufficient financial returns and the strong Rand. Some 5,000 jobs are at stake. NUM agreed to continuous seven-day-a-week operations with Harmony to ensure marginal mines stay operational, but now SA&rsquo;s largest gold producer has reneged on that pledge. NUM was in talks with Harmony when the firm made the surprise announcement about shuttering the six shafts.

NUM in South Africa Takes Issue with Harmony Gold&#039;s Job Cuts

Despite a complete and full victory by Kristal-Is at Sisecam Group glass plants in Turkey, ICEM affiliate Maden-Is&mdash;the General Mine Workers&rsquo; Union&mdash;is still in dispute with the glassmaker. Fifty-five miners at Sisecam&rsquo;s Cam-Is Quartz Mining operations in Yalikey, Istanbul, were sacked one year ago for becoming members of Maden-Is, and 16 others have been on strike at the mine since last August. Sisecam has shown no willingness to recognize the rights of the miners to join the union.

Turkish Maden-Is Union Seeks Rights for Glass Workers

The ICEM sent a letter of condolences to the families and colleagues of mineworkers who perished in an 11 April gas explosion in western Siberia. The letter was sent through the Russian Independent Coal Employees&rsquo;&rsquo; Union (Rosugleprof). The explosion trapped and killed 44 miners some 600 meters down a mine in the village of Taizhina, Osinniki, in Russia&rsquo;s Kuzbass mining region.

Explosion in Western Siberia Kills 44 Russian Miners

Organised labour is regrouping to meet new challenges. Union mergers have become an important source of strength in many countries. 
 
That process took a big step further in the USA this week with the creation of PACE, the 320,000-member Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Intl. Union. PACE results from a merger between two major US unions, the paperworkers' UPIU and the oil, chemical and atomic workers' OCAW. 
 
PACE immediately gave top priority to organising (i.e. actively recruiting new members) and to international trade union solidarity. Like both its forerunners, the new union is affiliated at the global level to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
First President of PACE is Boyd Young, who until now headed the UPIU. 
 
&quot;We intend to set the pace for organising, a progressive vision and international solidarity,&quot; Young said. &quot;The members of this great new union deserve to be and are prepared to be on the cutting edge as labour advances into a new century. We must fight for our future.&quot; 
 
The Executive Vice-President of PACE is Robert Wages, up to now President of the OCAW. He will take on key responsibilities in the union's organising programme and will continue to coordinate national oil bargaining. 
 
&quot;When the merger discussions started with the UPIU, President Young and I committed to a basic premise,&quot; said Wages. &quot;We were not interested in merging for the sake of being larger; we were interested in creating a new, more powerful and progressive union prepared to do the work our membership expects.&quot; 
 
Global trade unionism was highlighted during the merger Convention in a speech by the leader of locked-out Texan oilworkers. Crown Central Petroleum has kept unionised workers shut out of its Pasadena refinery since February 1996. Oil multinational Statoil has now told Crown that its contract to refine Statoil crude for the North American market will not be renewed unless Crown establishes normal relationships with the union. This pressure from Norwegian-based Statoil follows representations by the ICEM-affiliated Norwegian oilworkers' union NOPEF. During the PACE convention, the president of the Crown workers' union local paid tribute to this effective international solidarity. 
 
PACE has members in pulp, paper, oil, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, nuclear energy, cement, automobile parts, appliance manufacturing and a wide variety of other industries. 
 
The advent of the new union was warmly welcomed by ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe, who attended the merger Convention. &quot;PACE represents a substantial consolidation of the ICEM's American membership,&quot; Thorpe commented. &quot;We now have a powerful new affiliate with a strong commitment to global solidarity. This is good news for workers everywhere.&quot;

Pace-setting Union Merger Boosts US And Global Labour

Andriy Volynets, son of Ukrainian Miners&rsquo; Independent Trade Union Mikhail Volynets, was released from a hospital but doctors have not permitted him to return to work. Volynets was abducted and then brutally beaten 7 March in an act the ICEM believes to be political repression against his father, a member of the opposition coalition in the Rada, Ukraine&rsquo;s Parliament.

Ukrainian Mining Leader’s Son Recovering from Brutal Beating

The National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa has joined two other unions, including affiliate CEPPWAWU, and filed a formal application under Section 77 of the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) to investigate the strong Rand and the adverse affect it has had regarding job loss. The union seeks a tripartite summit to find an intervention strategy. &ldquo;The appreciating currency has had a negative impact in the mining industry. The mining sector has shed numerous jobs and is intent on cutting further,&rdquo; said NUM Gen. Sec. Gwede Mantashe in a South African report.

NUM and CEPPWAWU in South Africa Protest Strong Rand

IGBCE in Germany has warned employers in the chemical industry not to deviate from their social responsibilities in bargaining that begins in April for 580,000 chemical workers. Emphasizing that only some employers are stating the industry needs to &ldquo;catch its breath&rdquo; free of any wage increases, IGBCE said in a statement it would not change directions in upcoming talks. The union maintains that only through meaningful increases can the consumer economy in Germany improve.

German IGBCE Warns Chemical Industry Ahead of Bargaining

Nigeria&rsquo;s House of Representatives will carefully scrutinize an already amended Labour Reform Bill passed by the Senate. The measure, introduced by President Olusegun Obasanjo to punish NLC and trade unions for opposing past fuel price hikes with strikes, did have &ldquo;no strike&rdquo; language removed by the Senate before passage, but other restrictive measures that would weaken the NLC and trade unions remain. House leaders promise comprehensive hearings to ensure Nigerian people are heard on the legislation. Further amendments are likely.

Nigerian Labour Seeks to Further Weaken Labour Reform Bill

Archive

Australian Mine Union Marks Death Toll in NSW

PACE US Workers Take Health Care Issue to BP’s AGM

NUM in South Africa Takes Issue with Harmony Gold's Job Cuts

Turkish Maden-Is Union Seeks Rights for Glass Workers

Explosion in Western Siberia Kills 44 Russian Miners

Pace-setting Union Merger Boosts US And Global Labour

Ukrainian Mining Leader’s Son Recovering from Brutal Beating

NUM and CEPPWAWU in South Africa Protest Strong Rand

German IGBCE Warns Chemical Industry Ahead of Bargaining

Nigerian Labour Seeks to Further Weaken Labour Reform Bill

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