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About 400 members of ICEM affiliate Fiji Electricity Workers Association (FEWA) are preparing to strike this week over Fiji Electricity Authority&rsquo;s (FEA) refusal to address pay demands and grievances. The union gave managers a 28-day strike notice on 11 August and insisted that failure to enter meaningful negotiations would cause a walkout. Talks did occur last week, but FEA did not address the wage issue or failure to pay past cost-of-living increases that were due. Fiji&rsquo;s minister of Labour entered the dispute by issuing a letter declaring any strike illegal under the country&rsquo;s Trades Disputes Act, despite the fact that FEWA has been in compliance with all strike notice and secret ballot provisions.

Fiji Electric Workers Threaten Strike

Gold miners at Ghana Goldfields Ltd&rsquo;s Tarkwa mine briefly struck early last week over a dispute on a newly implemented profit-sharing plan. The 1,500 miners of ICEM affiliate Ghana Mineworkers Union (GMWU) struck 29 August but were back on jobs 30 August after negotiations between national leaders of GMWU and regional political leaders. The Tarkwa operation is Ghana&rsquo;s single largest gold producer that now has output of nearly 600,000 ounces annually, up from 530,000 in 2003. In 2004, Goldfields stopped utilizing contract miners at Tarkwa. The Johannesburg based mining house created a permanent workforce and introduced profit sharing that was aimed at supplementing full-time workers&rsquo; salaries.

Ghana Miners Strike Goldfields over Profit-Sharing

<img height="55" alt="" src="" width="138" />
Striking Canadian Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Union members at Invista, a global DuPont spinoff now owned by privately-held Koch Industries of the US, got a meaningful sign of Solidarity 27 August. Brother and sister CEPers employed at two other Invista chemical plants came to picket lines of striking Local 28 in Maitland, Ontario, with 380 black shorts bearing the union logos of all three branches. 
The 380 strikers have been out since 4 June over Invista&rsquo;s unwanted benefit cuts and company insistence to eliminate job security language in the contract to make room for contractors. A mediation session in mid-August did produce some progress, and the two sides are back before a provincial mediator on 12 August. CEP members at local branches in Ajax and Millhaven, Ontario, move closer themselves to initial bargaining with Invista in the coming months.

Invista Unions Rally Behind CEP at Canadian Chemical Plant Strike

North American affiliate USW responded rapidly last week to the disaster along the US Gulf of Mexico coast brought on by hurricane Katrina. By mid-week&mdash;before US government relief could get into the death-stricken region with emergency supplies&mdash;the union had designated and begun disbursing US$100,000 through it&rsquo;s Steelworkers Charitable and Education Organization, reported ICEM NA Chairman Don Langham, a vice president of USW. Some $50,000 of that came from the USW&rsquo;s Humanity Fund of Canada. For information on the special fund, log on to www.uswa.org and visit &ldquo;USW Katrina Disaster Fund&rdquo; which is on the homepage. Further information can be obtained by contacting USW Secretary-Treasurer Jim English at jenglish@steelworkers-usw.org.

US Steelworkers Respond to Gulf Coast Hurricane

Negotiations between ICEM affiliate NOPEF and the Norwegian Oil Industry Association in the oil services industry broke off and will now enter mediation. The industry has refused to match increases equal to the collective salary regulation for workers on fixed installations. In 2002, oil servicing workers won a five-day strike on the same issue. The matter of wage scale disparities in the oil sector also has an upcoming court trial scheduled in Norway under the country&rsquo;s Labour Code. NOPEF, meanwhile, is doing its part to rid the global oil industry of corruption. The union formally lodged a complaint with Norwegian economic crime police over bidding procedures conducted by Norway-based Sintef Petroleum Research A/S in Iran.

NOPEF, Oil Industry Enter Dispute Process for Service Workers

It took a manifestation and bloody confrontation with authorities for Polish miners to win a pension scheme. After commitments from Poland's lower chamber of Parliament to pass the measure into law, the chairman of that legislative body refused to put the past-service pension bill up to a vote. But 13 trade union centers of NSZZ Solidarnosc's National Section of Mining took to the streets in front of Parliament in Warsaw where 71 were arrested and a handful of both manifestants and police were injured. The late June protest, however, changed the mind of the chairman and the bill then cleared both the lower house and upper house of Parliament. It was signed into law by Poland's President just recently.

Polish Miners Manifestation Wins Pension Scheme

In Jordan, ICEM affiliate, the General Trade Union of Workers in Mining and Metal Industries, decided to postpone a strike mid- August until 27 August. The decision was taken to give the managers of the Jordan Phosphate Mines Company (JPMC) at the Shidiyeh mines some more time to meet with the workers' demands. The dispute, in which the union president, Khalid Fanatsah, is taking a leading role, is on housing units to be built for the workers by the company. Support for the workers reportedly came from the king of Jordan himself, His Majesty King Abdullah, who announced that the units should be distributed to the workers.

Tension Remians at Jordanian Phosphatre Mine

Another sad episode in the seemingly never-ending story of mining disasters in China took place in the country&rsquo;s Guangdong Province, where over 120 workers most probably drowned in an illegally-operated coal mine on August 7. The mine, partly owned by local officials in Xingning, Guangdong, was reportedly seriously mismanaged, with health and safety issues being widely ignored. According to Li Yizhong, director of the National Bureau of Production Safety Supervision and Administration, &quot;the tragedy was caused by mine-owners' greed for economic profits and malignant violation of safety rules&quot;. He also said that the mine did not have a production license, and that it had ignored a government order to suspend production following a flooding incident at a nearby mine on July 14. The provincial authorities in Guangdong and the Chinese Central Government have started an inquiry into the tragedy and ordered 69 officials to make themselves available to investigators.Two mayors have already been suspended.

Flooding Kills 120 at Illegal Guangdong Province Mine

Both in Ecuador and Nigeria, oil exports have been hampered by popular demonstrations. In Ecuador, following days of protests in two Amazon provinces over foreign companies and their levels of investment, the export of over 100,000 barrels a day had been brought to a standstill last week. Protesters want more of the country&rsquo;s oil money to be spent on new jobs and infrastructure. Oil revenues account for 25% of Ecuador&rsquo;s GDP. The state-owned company Petroecuador said over the weekend that production has been restarted &ldquo;with the help of the army&rdquo;. In Nigeria, Shell had to shut down the Agbada 1 flow station in Rivers State in the oil-rich Niger delta in southern Nigeria, following action by angry local protesters from the Ogoni community. Protests there were mainly over compensation for a 2003 spill which protesters say impacted over 500HA.

Mass Protests over Oil Exports in Ecuador, Nigeria

In South Africa, a statement was released by a coalition of trade unions, including ICEM affiliates NUM and National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), expressing serious concern about possible job losses after the merger of the 7 power distribution business units of Eskom and those of the municipalities, consisting of 187 licensed municipal distributors. According to an industry restructuring document, about 1,000 jobs could be lost a year. The report contradicts statements by the Electricity Distribution Holdings (EDI), the state-owned company set up to reform the sector, which said that no jobs would be lost during the restructuring.

Unions Fear SA Electric Merger Migh Mean Job Cuts

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