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Miners of Mexico&rsquo;s National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros, have rejected a severance package put forward by Grupo M&eacute;xico at the strike-hit Cananea copper mine. Some 1,200 workers at Cananea in northern Sonora state have been on strike since July 2007, a strike the company and the Mexican government have tried unsuccessfully to end through administrative edict and by formally dissolving the union&rsquo;s collective agreement. 
 
Since last year, Mexico&rsquo;s Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board has declared the strike illegal three times, but each time a court has reversed the rulings. Last month, Grupo M&eacute;xico tried to break miners&rsquo; resolve by offering a US$13,000 payment per worker to sever with the company. Reports indicated that only 20 miners accepted the buy-out. 

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&ldquo;The company is offering workers leftovers and calling it liquidation,&rdquo; stated SNTMMSRM Section 65 leader Mario Garc&iacute;a. Grupo M&eacute;xico is attempting to break the union, and then restructure and re-start Cananea, a mining complex capable of producing 48% of Mexico&rsquo;s copper output. 
 
The company has also lodged lawsuits against striking workers and strike leaders for alleged damage at the mine. The union has asked Grupo M&eacute;xico to withdraw those actions, and instead negotiate a revised collective agreement with Los Mineros that will raise salaries and benefits, and improve safety and hygiene, chief among reasons why miners struck in the first place. 
 
Grupo M&eacute;xico has stated that is has lost US$1.5 billion in sales due to the mine being shut. Cananea has capacity to produce 190,000 tonnes per year of copper, with 70% of that in copper concentrates and the remainder in copper cathode. 
 
The ICEM continue to support and campaign on behalf of Los Mineros in its fight for justice against the Mexican government and the ruthless affront posed by Grupo M&eacute;xico throughout the country.

Cananea Miners Reject Grupo México Severance; Strike Continues

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The lockout by Rio Tinto Minerals on 560 union members of International Longshore &amp; Warehouse Union (ILWU) in Boron, California, is now eight days old, and there is no sign that management intends to engage in talks anytime soon. 
 
Instead, Rio Tinto has engaged the services of US security firm J.R. Gettier of Wilmington, Delaware, to bus replacement workers across picket lines and to give menacing, paramilitary looks to ILWU members and their families in the Mojave Desert town of Boron, 122 kilometres east of Los Angeles. 
 
Gettier advertises itself as a full-service company with strike security teams that &ldquo;comes to your site to manage a labor-management dispute.&rdquo; JRG Services, a division of J.R. Gettier, provides clients with temporary or replacement workers that &ldquo;assist in meeting your company&rsquo;s &hellip; needs.&rdquo; 

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The lockout will be the central focus when the International Mining and Maritime Unions meet in Palmdale, California, on 15 February, which includes the ICEM and the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF). The multi-union organisation, which includes the predominately maritime and dockworkers&rsquo; ILWU, based in San Francisco, has already issued a statement in support of the locked-out workers: 
 
&ldquo;Our solidarity goes to ILWU Boron miners and their families in particular who have suffered these attacks on the morning of January 31 for defending workers&rsquo; rights and refusing to capitulate to the bullying tactics of Rio whose agenda is to break the union in order to slash wages and benefits.&rdquo; 
The ICEM issued a statement on 1 February, stating that it will use its role as the leading Global Union Federation in the mining industry &ldquo;to alert trade unions around the globe, particularly those representing Rio Tinto workers, of the lockout and urge them to take action on behalf of ILWU Local 30.&rdquo; That full statement can be found <a href="/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/3599-ICEM-Pledges-Support-to-Locked-Out-Rio-Tinto-Workers-in-US-State-of-California">here</a>. 
 
And the ITF, on 5 February, in a message to the ILWU, said the &ldquo;lockout can be seen as the lowest reaction of the employer to a workforce that strives for dialogue &hellip; we acknowledge you and your families&rsquo; fight, your strength and courage to stand up together against a corporation that is doing all in its power to confront the workforce and weaken the union.&rdquo; 

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ILWU President Bob McEllrath said, &ldquo;We are going into a big battle, and it is going to be a long and hard fought one,&rdquo; in thanking unions which have already expressed support. 
Please visit Local 30's website <a href="http://boraxminers.com/index.html">here</a>.
A previous contract for ILWU Local 30 expired on 4 November 2009. On 29 January, management presented workers with a concessionary proposal with the orders to either accept it or face a lockout. On 30 January, all 500 union members who attended a union meeting to discuss the proposal rejected it. The company seeks unprecedented changes to workers&rsquo; seniority, shift and overtime assignments, and the manner in which promotions are made, as well as seeking unilaterally changes on flexibility that will allow it greater latitude to sub-contract jobs. 
 
The global mining house Rio Tinto posted pre-tax profits on US$16 billion in 2008. Rio Tinto Minerals, which also operates globally, is based in the US state of Colorado and the borax, or sodium borate mine in California is the world&rsquo;s second largest borates mine in the world, producing 42% of the world&rsquo;s refined borates compounds. 
 
The ICEM urges all affiliates and supporters to send protest letters to Rio Tinto, condemning the lockout. Click <a href="/index.php?id=5&amp;la=EN&amp;doc=3600">here</a> for a model, paste the text onto your letterhead, and send to Rio Tinto CEO Albanese at <a href="mailto:tom.albanese@riotinto.com">tom.albanese@riotinto.com</a>, copied to <a href="mailto:joe.drexler@icem.org">joe.drexler@icem.org</a> and <a href="mailto:info@ilwu.org">info@ilwu.org</a>.

Rio Tinto Engaged in Savage Union Busting at California Borates Mine

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On 21 January, ICEM Colombian affiliate Union Sindical Obrera de la Industria del Petrolero (USO) presented demands to management of Schlumberger Surenco, the world's largest oilfield services corporation with operations in approximately 80 countries. The multinational has been operating in Colombia since 2001 with the state-run petroleum company, Ecopetrol, at the Casabe site, near Barrancabermeja, the country&rsquo;s most important refinery. 
 
Schlumberger has contracts with Ecopetrol at a majority of production sites in Colombia. 

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The company entered into bargaining with the USO negotiating committee on 3 February. USO will be aiming to improve conditions and salaries for workers at a global oil services company that posted operating revenues in 2008 totaled US$27.16 billion. 
 
The ICEM will continue to monitor these talks, and pledges full support to USO in achieving the best terms and conditions possible. 
 
Elsewhere regarding USO, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda last week sent a letter to Colombian President &Aacute;lvaro Uribe, calling on his government to improve security for trade unionists in Colombia. The letter follows yet another serious attack on USO President Germ&aacute;n Osman. Warda called on both the government and Ecopetrol to do more to guarantee the safety and rights of trade unionists and their families, in light of the continuing attacks by Colombian mafia groups such as the &ldquo;&Aacute;guilas Negras,&rdquo; or Black Eagles. 
 
Colombia has the reputation for being the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists, with 49 trade union leaders murdered in 2009 and 2,712 since 1986. The ICEM and Warda&rsquo;s letter in Spanish can be viewed <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/1.ICEM.Col.Pres.Uribe..pdf">here</a>. 
 
The ICEM has a website dedicated to its work in Colombia, run by Colombia Coordinator Carlos Bustos. View that website here <a href="http://www.icemcolombia.com">www.icemcolombia.com</a>. Write to Carlos <a href="mailto:icemcol@hotmail.com">here</a>.

Colombia Oil Union USO Presents Demands to Service Provider Schlumberger

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The second ICEM, International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) survey on Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) shows a continuing increase in the number of workers employed precarious contracts, despite an economic crisis that gripped many countries during 2009 and led to massive lay-offs of short-term contract workers. 
 
The result is surprising since it is generally the practice that CAL workers are the first to be made redundant when companies restructure, and could perhaps indicate that many companies who have begun hiring again are doing so with fixed-term or temporary workers. 
 
A total of 66% of ICEM and IMF affiliates that responded indicated that there has been an increase in temporary or part-time work in their sectors and in their countries in 2009. Only 22% of affiliates reported that they had seen a decrease, with a further 12% stating that there had been no change. This builds on information collected in 2008, when 88% of all ICEM affiliates stated that short-term and temporary employment increased over the past five years. Noteworthy is also the fact that quite a few unions signaled a sharp increase in precarious labour, with one in three ICEM affiliates indicating an increase of over 10% over the past year. 
<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="95" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="100" height="97" /> 

Two-thirds of the ICEM and IMF affiliates who replied indicated that the wage and benefit gap between direct, permanently employed workers and CAL workers had increased over the last year as a result of the global economic crisis. This growing wage gap between permanently employed workers and contract workers seems to be more pronounced outside of countries in the OECD area. 
 
Another important factor is that unions are taking action against the proliferation of precarious jobs, with 40% of ICEM and IMF affiliates saying that they are already taking measures to avoid an increase in precarious work once the economy begins to improve. Another 39% are currently reflecting on how to take action on this issue. Only 14% indicated that they had not yet taken any action, and a mere 7% of affiliates stated that this is not a problem for them. 
 
Recruiting short-term or temp agency workers into unions remains a challenge, with only 28% of affiliates reporting that their union has more contract and agency worker members than it did last year. A full 37% of ICEM and IMF affiliates indicated that the amount of members employed as contract and agency workers had remained the same, and 35% said that there had been a decrease in membership of workers employed on a contract or agency basis. 
 
A total of 252 ICEM and IMF affiliates responded to the multilingual survey. Responses were received from all regions, with Africa, Asia, and Europe/Eurasia each being responsible for about one third of all responses. A further 8% of replies came from the Americas and 2% from the Asia-Pacific region. A more detailed visual representation of all the results is available <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/ICEM-IMF%20survey%20results%20in%20graphics.pdf">here</a>.

Despite Recession, ICEM/IMF CAL Survey Shows Precarious Work Growing

ICEM Women’s Bulletin No. 36/Boletín de noticias de las mujeres de ICEM No. 36

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Turkish public sector employees have legally had the right to organise and form their own unions since 2001, as stipulated by the Public Employees' Trade Unions Act No. 4688. Although the law recognizes the right to organise, there are numerous groups of employees who are excluded, lawyers, civil servants at the Ministry of Defence and Turkish Armed Forces, employees at penal institutions, special security personnel, public employees &quot;in positions of trust&quot;, presidents of universities, and directors of high schools. 
 
In terms of negotiating and taking strike action, these workers have no rights at all. Act 4688 allows for &ldquo;collective consultative talks&rdquo; for the negotiating of working conditions with government, it is then the government that makes the final decision on salaries, allowances, compensation, and bonuses. Likewise, there is still no formally recognised right to strike for public employees. This clearly is not in line with core ILO Convention 98. The International Labour Organisation repeatedly criticises this and urges the Turkish Government to make necessary modifications to the Act. 

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Centre&nbsp;Sami Evren, President of KESK,&nbsp;right Bircan Akyıldız, President of T&uuml;rkiye Kamu-Sen
The collective consultative talks have proved inadequate in achieving the deserved working conditions for public sector employees, two major Turkish trade union confederations, T&uuml;rkiye Kamu-Sen and KESK, have decided to take joint strike action on 25 November to urge the government to change the law and recognise the right to bargain and strike. On that day, both confederations report, aircrafts, trains and ships will not work, education will not be done, taxes will not be collected, &ldquo;all the public services will be stopped&rdquo;. 
 
The President of T&uuml;rkiye Kamu-Sen Bircan Akyıldız stated that eight years of commitment to collective consultative talks have produced nothing for workers. &ldquo;The strike on 25 November will not just be done on behalf of Kamu-Sen and KESK, but also for defending the rights of all public emloyees&rdquo;, he added. The President of KESK, Sami Evren, stated that the parties have never bargained from equal positions during the collective consultative talks, leading to the Government ignoring the demands of public employees. &ldquo;We have exhausted all internal judicial possibilities, and then applied to the European Human Rights Court, which ruled that Turkish public employees should have the right to bargain collectively&rdquo;, he added. 

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The ICEM has affiliates from both confederations and fully supports the strike on 25 November, in line with the decision of the ICEM Turkish Coordinating Committee, which met on 2 November in Izmir. In his letter to the Presidents of T&uuml;rkiye Kamu-Sen and KESK, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda has conveyed the solidarity of the whole ICEM family to the Turkish public employees in their struggle for bargaining and striking rights. &ldquo;We cordially convey to you our deepest sympathy and solidarity for your rights which are guaranteed by international conventions that have been ratified by Turkey. It is our firm belief that your struggle, fought since the 1990s, for empowered unions with all rights, will be successful. The joint strike on 25 November is a clear signal for this. The ICEM has been and will always stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you in this honourable and rightful fight&rdquo;.

Turkish Public Employees to Stop Work on 25 November Calling for Right to Bargain, Strike

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An 18-month contract dispute between the ICEM North American affiliate, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB), and Lafarge at a cement manufacturing plant in the US state of Missouri was finally resolved on 22 October. 
 
A tentative agreement was reached at the Sugar Creek, Missouri, plant between IBB Lodge D-27 and American managers of the French- based company that will see retirees receive the same medical benefits that active workers get, and will push back a different retiree health-benefit scheme for any new employee hired after 1 January 2012. 
 
IBB Vice President Warren Fairly reported that the new agreement, once ratified by the 55 Lodge D-27 members, will run until 1 January 2012. A prior agreement expired on 30 April 2008. 

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The ICEM and the Building and Woodworkers&rsquo; International (BWI), the two Global Union Federations that are signatory to a Global Framework Agreement with Lafarge, brought North American management&rsquo;s unjust social cuts before senior Lafarge managers in Paris in September and October 2008. 
 
Lafarge had sought to exclude entirely new hires from any future retiree medical plan, and wanted existing workers to enter into a separate, inferior health-care plan upon retirement. 
 
The ICEM congratulates the IBB for its bargaining table endurance to finally get Lafarge to move away from its concessionary 2008 contract agenda. The Sugar Creek cement plant underwent a major modernisation in 2002, and is currently in a ten-week partial shutdown that is expected to last until 11 January 2010 due to the economic downturn in the construction sector. 
 
Some 35 to 40 IBB members are on temporary furloughs, but the union has negotiated retention of their benefits. Teamsters Local 541 represents about ten truck drivers at the Sugar Creek plant as well.

US Boilermakers US Succeed in Moving Lafarge Off Contract Concessions

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A full four years after BP paid US$21.3 million in penalties and made promises to the US government to correct safety deficiencies at its Texas City, Texas, oil and petrochemicals refinery, the British energy company is still not in compliance. 
 
On 30 October, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the US Department of Labor slapped BP with a further US$87.4 million fine for failure to rectify safety problems identified following a deadly March 2005 explosion at the east Texas refinery. 

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The fine is four times higher than any previous safety fine issued by OSHA in its 39-year history. The previous high was the US$21.3 million penalty assessed BP in September 2005 when the company reached a settlement agreement with the agency to fix the causes of the 23 March 2005 explosion, which killed 15 contract workers and serious injured another 80 workers. 
 
The US trade union representing workers at BP&rsquo;s former Amoco refinery at Texas City, ICEM affiliated United Steelworkers (USW), warned of the industry&rsquo;s reluctance to seriously undertake efforts to improve safety and health in the downstream sector during US collective agreement negotiations early in 2009. Then, the union had made safety the primary issue in negotiations, but the industry stonewalled the union and workers on joint approaches to improve safety. 

<img src="" width="125" height="180" alt="" />
USW Vice President Gary Beevers
&ldquo;Hopefully, Friday&rsquo;s non-compliance fine will serve as a wake-up to the public and industry that oil and gas companies must get serious on safety,&rdquo; said USW Vice President and ICEM Executive Committee Gary Beevers. &ldquo;We intend to continue working closely with BP to improve process safety at all their US facilities.&rdquo; 
 
Late in 2007, the USW and the Tony Mazzocchi Center for Health, Safety and environmental Education published a book entitled &ldquo;Beyond Texas City: the State of Process Safety in the Unionized US Oil Refining Industry.&rdquo; The book critiques operating practices in 51 US refineries and offers sets of &ldquo;Urgent and Critical Actions&rdquo; needed to improve safety. The pdf version of &ldquo;Beyond Texas City&rdquo; can be found <a href="http://legacy.usw.org/usw/program/adminlinks/docs/BeyondTexasCity.pdf ">here</a>. 
 
The US OSHA agency last week issued BP with 270 notifications of failure to stem hazards that caused the 2005 explosion, with total fines of US$56.7 million. Each notification represents a penalty of US$7,000 times 30 days, the period that that the condition have gone unabated. In addition, the US government identified 439 new willful violations for failures to follow industry-accepted safety standards, resulting in further fines of US$30.7 million. 
 
BP said it would formally contest these latest violations and fines before a review commission of OSHA, which can amend and reduce the violations. 
 
Stated US Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, Jordan Barab: &ldquo;BP was given four years to correct the safety issues identified pursuant to the settlement agreement, yet OSHA has found hundreds of violations of the agreement and hundreds of new violations. BP still has a great deal of work to do to assure the safety and health of the employees who work at this refinery.&rdquo; 
 
The 23 March 2005 deadly blast was caused by a broken gauge and flammable hydrocarbons that overflowed from an isomerisation tower used to boast octane levels of petrol. Those vapors were ignited from the equipment of contract companies that were operating too close to the isomerisation unit.

BP Fails to Correct Safety Errors at Texas Refinery, Ordered to Pay Another US$87.4 Million

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Over 100 participants from Russian trade unions, labour academia, national and regional governments, scientists, and business leaders gathered on 12 October in a Gazprom conference room in Moscow to mark the Tenth Anniversary of creation of a vertically-integrated trade union structure. 
 
That structure is part of ICEM affiliate, the national Russian Oil, Gas, and Construction Workers Union (ROGWU), representing the gas company&rsquo;s workers. They were joined by delegations from oil and gas trade unions from Belarus, France, Norway, Romania, and Serbia, as well as ICEM Energy Officer Jim Catterson, who represented the Global Union Federation (GUF). 
 
The event coincided with a major trade union conference entitled &ldquo;Innovations in the Russian Trade-Union Movement: Practice and Problems.&rdquo; The conference was opened by Vladimir Babkin, President of the Inter-regional Trade Union of Gazprom and a Vice President of ROGWU. Following an extensive opening session, the conference broke into two working groups where participants discussed trade union structures, and their current objectives and challenges. 
<img alt="" src="" width="267" height="222" />
Wide-ranging presentations were heard as participants from Russia and abroad shared their experiences in social dialog and social partnership work, employee representation, and social and labour rights protection. 
 
Catterson gave a presentation that covered ICEM work on social dialog throughout the world, with a particular focus on Global Framework Agreements in the oil and gas industry. The presentations generated considerable discussion and debate that led to a series of draft conclusions that were adopted at a final plenary meeting of the conference, conclusions that will be published by ROGWU in the near future. 
 
During a break in the conference proceedings, foreign participants were given a tour of parts of Gazprom&rsquo;s complex in Moscow, including the dispatch area. 

<img alt="" src="" width="261" height="196" />
Following a discussion on the gas resources of the Russian Federation and future plans regarding production and new pipelines, participants were shown the computerized dispatch room. Here, in front of a screen covering an entire wall, computer operators working on a host of terminals ensure the optimal movement of gas from fields in western and central Siberia through the complex network of Russian pipelines, as well as the export pipelines to and across Europe. The tour of the facility was given by the manager of the unit and the workers&rsquo; trade union representative. It generated a lively and interesting discussion. 
 
ICEM hopes that the conference will help to increase social dialog within the company at the global level that will involve the GUF and our affiliates, since the company is expanding operations in both gas and oil globally.

In Russia, Celebration of 10 Years of Gazprom Union Structure

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The main Ukrainian national labour center, the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine (FPU), sent a message to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week: stay out of the internal legislative business of the country. FPU leaders, trade unionists, and civil society leaders protested in front of the IMF&rsquo;s regional office in Kiev on 27 October. 
 
The peaceful pickets protested a statement issued two days earlier by the IMF calling on President Viktor Yushchenko to veto a bill passed by the Parliament on 20 October that would lift levels of social benefits, including minimum wage and pension benefits. 
 
The IMF has threatened to pull a &euro;11.5 billion emergency credit arrangement to Ukraine if Yushchenko signs the legislation, which passed Parliament with a 459 to 254 vote. 

<img src="" width="240" height="164" alt="" />
Yushchenko has indicated that he will sign the new social benefits bill, thus lifting the minimum monthly living wage to the equivalent of &euro;73.09 on 1 December 2010 after five increments over the next year; and increase the monthly minimum wage to &euro;77.37 on the same date, with incremental hikes from a proposed &euro;62.43 that is due to take effect once Yushchenko signs the bill into law. 
 
The FPU said in a statement that the IMF &ldquo;is interfering directly in the internal social policy of Ukraine and is trying to weaken social protections, decreasing the level of social guarantees.&rdquo; The trade union federation also said IMF and other international financial institutions in the past have supported limits on Ukrainian pension expenditures, a rise in the pension age by five years, and strict restrictions on rises in citizens&rsquo; incomes. 
 
In a letter presented to the IMF on the day of the protest, the federation demanded that IMF consult with trade unions before changing its conditions on loan guarantees, and said it should work toward alleviating poverty, not promoting it in its guidance policies. 
 
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), in coordination with all three of Ukraine&rsquo;s national labour centres, held a meeting with IMF resident representative Max Alier on 29 October in Kiev over the IMF&rsquo;s affront to the modest increases in social standards.

Ukraine’s Unions Protest IMF Involvement in Legislative Affairs

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