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Similar to non-union coal miners at the fateful Sago mine in the US state of West Virginia (<a href="-Safety-Workers’-Rights-Victimized-by-Bankruptcies">click here for more</a>), miners at Murrau Energy Corp., in the state of Utah, have designated ICEM affiliate United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) as their representative in discussions with the company and the US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). 
 
Those discussions and subsequent investigation follow the tragic cave-in at Murray's non-union Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, which killed six trapped miners on 6 August and another three miners on 16 August during a rescue effort. The disaster took place at 600 metres underground. 
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Under US mine safety law, non-union miners can request the expertise of the UMWA in the event of a disaster, or safety occurrence. That happened at the Sago Mine in early 2006 when 12 miners perished due to an underground explosion. Then, International Coal Group and its owner, New York investor Wilbur Ross, blocked UMWA safety experts from entering the mine following the blast. The union and MSHA had to sue the non-union company to gain access in order to uphold the law. 
 
In this month's Utah tragedy, again, production and the pursuit of profit led to mining deaths. Murray Energy had been engaged in retreat mining at the south end of the 5,000-acre Crandall Canyon Mine when a bump -- or shift of earth and rock resulting from excavation -- occurred. 
 
Retreat mining is when grids supporting a shaft's ceiling are deliberately removed in order to cause a controlled cave-in. Murray, which bought the mine in 2006, had been ordered by MSHA to halt the practice of retreat mining on the north end of the mine in March 2007, but the federal agency did grant permits for retreat mining on the south side. 
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The UMWA termed the practice &quot;a recipe for disaster,&quot; since mining was happening between two sections that already had been excavated. On 16 August, another bump occurred during the rescue, killing the three rescue workers and injuring six others. 
 
Cleveland, Ohio-based Murray Energy is owned by the controversial Robert Murray, holder of 19 coal mines in five US states. His mines have been hot with 32 serious safety infractions so far this year. He also violated US labour law previously when he threatened to sack UMWA members at a mine in the state of Pennsylvania if they talked openly about a brewing labour dispute. 
 
Murray told reporters last week that he would permanently close the Crandall Canyon Mine, thus entombing the six miners. But he reversed that public stand the very next day.

US Non-Union Miners Turn to UMWA in Aftermath of Utah Coal Tragedy

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Energy trade unions from Canada, the US and Mexico met in Montreal, Canada, on 18 August 2007, to challenge efforts by leaders of the three countries, as well as by large multinational corporations, to secretly integrate national energy policies without public oversight or legislative accountability. 
 
North American ICEM affiliates Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) and United Steelworkers (USW) participated in a forum, organised by three networks of various social partners, along with other unions representing workers in the electrical, nuclear and oil sectors in Canada and Mexico. The ICEM also attended the meeting. 
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The ICEM affiliates condemned the legitimacy of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), a clandestine effort by the leaders of the three countries and their corporate partners to develop and implement a neoliberal energy policy, aimed at enhancing the interests of corporations and building a growing U.S security apparatus at the expense of workers and the public. 
The forum occurred just two days before the meeting by Presidents George Bush and Felipe Calderon and Prime Minister Stephen Harper with the CEOs of 30 multinational corporations from the three countries, aimed at moving the SPP process forward at a rapid pace. 
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow" target="_blank"><img height="165" alt="" src="" width="250" border="0" /></a>
Dave Coles, CEP President and ICEM Vice President, confronting and stopping provocateurs, which were later proven to be police infiltrators. On YouTube <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow">here</a>. 
A statement condemning the SPP was issued following the forum, citing the lack of democratic participation and oversight, as well as the participants rejection of the security agenda. Efforts by the SPP to integrate the electricity grids and natural gas systems of the three countries, exploitation of Canada&rsquo;s massive tar sands production to serve US corporate and security interests, continued repression of trade union rights in Mexico, and the privatisation of Mexico&rsquo;s electrical, gas and oil resources were also a particular focus of the forum and the resulting statement. 
 
&ldquo;These and other elements of the SPP-corporate energy agenda are unsustainable and sacrifice the needs of workers and communities in each country to the profits of energy corporations.&rdquo; This is an agenda &ldquo;that fails to address the need for each country to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including a new round of far reaching goals after 2012. Nor does this corporate-continental model of energy development respond to the needs of national economic development or recognize the primary role of energy industries for community economic development. &ldquo; 
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CEP President and ICEM Vice President Dave Coles, along with CEP Secretary-Treasurer Gaetan Menard and USW Vice President Gary Beevers presented the statement the next day at another forum, held on 19 August 2007, at the University of Ottawa. ICEM affiliates also joined a large demonstration the same day in Ottawa at the Canadian Parliament and a march to the Mexican and US embassies. 
 
Demonstrations were also taking place on 20 August in Montebello, Canada, where the leaders of the three countries are meeting with corporate CEOs. At the demonstrations, Dave Coles stood up to &lsquo;agents provocateurs&rsquo;, who later turned out to be police infiltrators: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow</a>. 
 
A copy of the full statement can be found at <a href="http://www.cep.ca">www.cep.ca</a>.

North American Trade Unions Condemn Secret and Undemocratic Efforts to Map New Energy Future

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ICEM Affiliates: HIV/AIDS Activities Pick up 
 
ICEM affiliates in Botswana organised a series of meetings on HIV/AIDS policy, peer education, and voluntary counselling and testing. The National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA) has shown an interest in the unions&rsquo; programme. 
 
In Tanzania, ICEM affiliates TUICO and TAMICO organised training workshops for peer educators at the Mbeya Labour College and in Dar-es-Salaam. A separate seminar was held for members from the Kiwira Coal Mine. 
 
Workplace union representatives were the target group of a training seminar in C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire which dealt with behaviour change communication, the rights of HIV-positive workers, and the essential elements of workplace policies. 
 
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, two training workshops for peer educators were held in Kinshasa and Moanda, which is a town on the border with Angola where prevalence is high. 
 
All these activities were supported with funds for national activities from the LO/TCO-FNV Mondiaal HIV/AIDS project.
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ICEM Regional Meetings in Africa 
 
At the Regional Women&rsquo;s Conference in Johannesburg, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa presented a resolution on the gender dynamics of HIV/AIDS. Women need to be empowered to take control of sexual behaviour, especially condom use. HIV/AIDS and women workers has been made one of the priorities for the work of the women&rsquo;s committee in the coming years. 
 
Several speakers at the Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Conference in Gaborone, Botswana, referred to the importance of behaviour change, the need for testing, and the necessity for a wider availability of anti-retroviral drugs. HIV/AIDS must be considered a disease like any other. Only then can stigma, which prevents people from knowing their status, be eliminated. 
 
The host unions in Botswana reported on a successful campaign when, on one day, 350 people were tested in Silebe Phikwe, a mining town with one of the highest prevalence rates in the country. Sadly, however, a delegate from Zimbabwe described a bleak situation where people prefer not to be tested because ARVs are not available.
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Tanzania: Hope to AIDS Sufferers 
 
As more and more people visit Care and Treatment Centres (CTC), the number of HIV patients on anti-retroviral treatment has doubled in just over a year. 
 
The increase has been attributed to the introduction of &ldquo;fellows&rdquo; trained by the Benjamin Mkapa HIV/AIDS Foundation, an NGO jointly initiated by former presidents of Tanzania and of the US, Benjamin Mkapa and Bill Clinton, respectively. 
 
These so-called fellows address the gaps in human resources for the public health sector, which is key in scaling up HIV/AIDS care and treatment. 
 
Setting a good example, the current President of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, publicly took an HIV/AIDS test. 
 
(Source: East African, Nairobi, 24 July)
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India: 2.5 Million People Living with HIV, According to New Estimates 
 
The new 2006 estimates, released on 6 July by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), supported by UNAIDS and WHO, indicate that national adult HIV prevalence in India is approximately 0.36%, which corresponds to an estimated 2 million to 3.1 million people living with HIV in the country. These estimates are more accurate than those of previous years, as they are based on an expanded surveillance system and a revised and enhanced methodology. 
 
The revised estimates will be used to improve planning for prevention, care and treatment efforts. &ldquo;While it is good news that the total number of HIV infections is lower than previously thought, we cannot be complacent. The steady and slow spread of the HIV infection is a worrying factor. The better understanding of India&rsquo;s epidemic has certainly enabled us to have more focused HIV prevention and treatment strategies and more effective deployment of resources,&rdquo; said Mr. Naresh Dayal, Secretary of Health and Chair of the National AIDS Control Board. 
 
Commenting on the new estimates and guarding against their misinterpretation, Sujatha Rao, Additional Secretary and Director General, National AIDS Control Organization said, &ldquo;The calculation of figures for several years, using the new model helps us understand that the new lower estimates do not mean a sharp decline in the epidemic.&rdquo; She cautioned against easing off the momentum of the HIV response. 
 
Comments by the editor of this e-bulletin. Hans Schwass: The 2006 UNAIDS epidemic update put the 2005 figure for India at approximately 5.7 million with a variance of 3.4 to 9.4 million. This made India the country with the highest absolute number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world. 
 
Prof. James Chin, former unit chief at the WHO Global Programme on AIDS, says that UNAIDS has overestimated HIV prevalence in a large number of countries. He goes on to say that exaggerating the numbers will cause a backlash and damage support from the public and policymakers. He acknowledges, however, that the pandemic is severe in a large number of regions and countries and that it requires that AIDS programmes continue to receive the highest public health priority and funding. 
 
(Source: UNAIDS Press Release, 6 July and The Monitor, Kampala, 28 July)
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HIV: A Time Bomb for the Mining Industry? 
 
Mining companies all over the world have belatedly realised that at a time of booming demand for minerals, HIV/AIDS is hampering their operations. 
 
Mining areas regularly have a higher prevalence rate than the national average. In South Africa, the infection rate is nearly double that of the general working population; in the Russian mining town of Irkutsk, it is three times higher than the national average. To a large extent, this is due to the working and living conditions of mine workers and the high rate of migrant workers who are employed in the industry and who have to leave their families behind. Remote mining sites also attract commercial sex workers. 
 
Brian Brink, Senior Vice President Health of AngloAmerican mining house in South Africa, admits that despite all their efforts, they did not stop the epidemic. A lot of cases still go undiagnosed and do not get reported. In India, where the prevalence rate is still low (see previous article), there are areas where the rate is around 1%. &ldquo;In the early 1990s, that is where we were and then it is very difficult to stop,&rdquo; declared Brink. &ldquo;Other countries must not fall into the same trap as South Africa, said Lennox Mekuto, Health and Safety Officer of the ICEM-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). 
 
(Source: The Namibian, Windhoek, 13 July)
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News from ILOAIDS 
 
Edwin Cameron, Judge at the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa, gave a talk at the ILO on 19 June on &ldquo;Legislating an Epidemic: The Challenge of HIV/AIDS in the Workplace.&rdquo; The talk was given on the background of the ILO having started work on developing a Recommendation on HIV/AIDS in the World of Work, following a decision of the Governing Body in March 2007. 
 
On a workplace perspective, Judge Cameroon made three propositions: that the effects of the epidemic on the workplace are distinctive, and must be distinctively addressed; that in countries where the epidemic has taken hold or threatens, the response by unions, employers, and governments to workplace issues has not been sufficient; and that the workplace offers a particularly appropriate location for addressing HIV-related issues. 
 
He went on to say that since the adoption of the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work in 2001, the epidemic has moved fast and that some aspects of the Code seem outdated now. He gave two reasons: the Code elides treatment and its approach to testing is antiquated. 
 
On treatment Judge Cameron argued that since 2001, large-scale provision of anti-retroviral treatment, even in resource-poor settings, has proven to be effective and feasible. 
 
The Code is fully five years behind. Encouraging access to anti-retroviral treatment should now be a cornerstone of every employer&rsquo;s policy in every country where the epidemic has taken hold. Although it probably remains too ambitious to want to oblige employers to provide ARVs, they should certainly be obliged to assist and to provide information on ARVs, and to provide assistance in accessing them. The fact is, the workplace is an ideal environment for treatment literacy campaigns, for partnering treatment roll-out programmes, and even for directly observed treatment supervision. 
 
On HIV testing, he maintained that the Code&rsquo;s approach is out-dated. In the present climate of continuing stigma, amid the availability of treatment, the Code&rsquo;s approach to treatment is even retrogressive. It was valid before large-scale treatment became available and at a time when testing was all too frequently merely an excuse to discriminate and exclude. 
 
Thus the Code cautions that testing should not automatically be carried out in the workplace and that it should be strictly confidential and with informed consent. The debate about testing has moved far beyond these constricting parameters. Where non-discrimination protections do exist, and where confidentiality is assured, testing should be actively encouraged &ndash; not hedged around with impediments. The ability to establish your HIV status should be celebrated as a means of self-knowledge, self-empowerment, and as a portal to treatment. According to Cameron, the Code&rsquo;s approach badly needs an over-haul. 
 
Judge Cameron declared his HIV positive status publicly some time ago and is, as he stated, &ldquo;proudly and openly gay.&rdquo; At the ILO, he went on to say, &ldquo;I owe my own presence with you here in Geneva today to anti-retroviral medication. I started taking ARVs nearly ten years ago, in November 1997, when I was very sick with AIDS and facing death. I have been on the same drug combination for nearly seven years &ndash; since early 2001.&rdquo;
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News from the Global Union Programme and Global Union Federations 
 
In its most recent HIV/AIDS updates (Nos. 24 and 25 of 1 and 15 July) the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF), <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a>, reports, among other items, on plans by India&rsquo;s National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) to increase the number of condom vending machines from 600,000 to 3 million. Condom promotion is one of the priority areas for NACO in HIV prevention. It also reports on a new public/private partnership to use cell phones to bolster care and treatment in ten African countries.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - Nos. 22 &amp; 23

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The Workers&rsquo; Actrav of the ILO and the ICEM urges union leaders to announce to trade unionists that applications to the Global Labour University&rsquo;s upcoming degree programmes are now open. The programmes will be held in South Africa, in January 2008; Brazil, in February 2008; and in Germany, September 2008.
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The ILO&rsquo;s Workers&rsquo; Actrav will award a limited number of scholarships. Deadline for submissions to the Brazil and South African sessions: 1 September 2007. Deadline for the German programme is 1 April 2008. 
 
The courses take place at the University of Witwaterstrand in South Africa, at Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Sao Paulo State, Brazil, and at Germany&rsquo;s University of Kassel and the Berlin School of Economics. The course titles are &ldquo;Labour and Development&rdquo; (South Africa), &ldquo;Social Economy and Labour&rdquo; (Brazil), and &ldquo;Labour Policies and Globalisation&rdquo; (Germany).
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The ILO scholarships are open to applicants from developing and transitional economies. Applicants need to have the endorsement of a trade union to apply for a scholarship. The grant is conditional on a contribution from the supporting trade union, or other donor. 
 
The courses are endorsed by COSATU in South Africa, CUT in Brazil, and DGB in Germany, and backed by Germany&rsquo;s Hans Boeckler Foundation and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Scholarship Submissions Due for Global Labour University’s Classes in Brazil, South Africa, Germany

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ICEM affiliate Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Zambia (MUZ), together with another mining union, won a 20% pay increase for 9,000 miners at Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in early July. The pay increase matched what the unions achieved for miners at KCM in 2006. 
 
Negotiations began in mid-May, but KCM, a company that is majority held by London-listed and Indian-owned Vedanta Resources, was slow in meeting the unions&rsquo; demands. In early July, the company did increase its pay offer from 16% to 20%. 
 
The average salary for the lowest paid miner at KCM had been US$400 per month. The other union negotiating the MUZ is the National Union of Mining and Allied Workers (NUMAW). The 20% increase was awarded effective 1 July.
<img height="130" src="" width="130" alt="" />
Meanwhile, last week, Canadian gold and copper producer First Quantum sacked four strike leaders &ndash; including two shop stewards &ndash; over a wildcat strike at the Kansanshi mine near Solez in mid-July. MUZ intervened to halt the strike by 400 miners in the North-Western province of Zambia, and succeeded in getting negotiations back on track. 
 
But the company took the action to terminate the four and place six others on final warning notices. Appeals are expected. 
 
At KCM, a business dispute between Vedenta and minority shareholder Zambian Copper Investments (ZCI) has gone to arbitration and awaits a ruling. Vedenta has an option to buy ZCI&rsquo;s 28.4% stake in KCM, lifting its ownership to 79.4%, but the dispute over share price has blocked the deal. The Zambian government maintains a 20.6% share of KCM.
<img height="115" src="" width="250" alt="" />
KCM comprises copper mines at Nkana, Nchanga, and Konkola, as well as pyrite mining at Nampundwe and a copper smelter at Nkana. This smelter is the biggest in Africa, and is now currently undergoing expansion. Vedanta also has invested at a new site, the Konkola Deep Mine Project, which will be operational in 2010 and will extend KCM&rsquo;s mining life by 30 years. 
 
Vedanta Resources is a major global producer of aluminum, zinc, and copper, and was founded and is currently run by Indian industrial magnate Anil Agarwal.

Zambian Miners Get 20%; Canadian Firm Sacks Leaders of a Copper Strike

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Unless an eleventh hour solution is found today, thousands of members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa will strike six diamond mines of DeBeers on Tuesday, 31 July. A walkout will mark the first full-scale mining strike in South Africa this year as current bargaining across a number of mining sectors remains bogged down in wage disputes. 
 
The NUM issued a strike notice to the world&rsquo;s largest diamond miner on 26 July, following certification from South Africa&rsquo;s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) that talks had hit a standstill. A day earlier, NUM members voted to strike the company, which is 45% owned by AngloAmerican.
<img height="131" alt="" src="" width="130" />
NUM members at DeBeers, numbering about 6,000, are adamant that an 11% pay increase is due them. DeBeers is only offering 8% and a contract for two years. 
 
&ldquo;DeBeers continues to preach 8% and a two-year agreement, and we had said &lsquo;No,&rsquo;&rdquo; stated NUM&rsquo;s lead negotiator for diamond mining, Peter Bailey. He added, &ldquo;Workers have told us in no uncertain terms that double-digit&rdquo; percentage increases are necessary in order to get a settlement, said Bailey. 
 
DeBeers stated that it intends to operate mines with a contingency plan if the NUM takes strike action.

NUM Set to Strike DeBeers Tomorrow in South Africa

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The tense situation in New Zealand&rsquo;s coal pits has eased. But the end to hostilities came only after a wave of sympathy strikes shut down coal production following the lockout of 200 miners by Australian-based contractor HWE Mining on 18 July. 
 
The New Zealand mining industry&rsquo;s collective talks, between ICEM affiliate Engineering, Paper, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and state-owned Solid Energy and its contractors, already had been tense before the three-day lockout. Talks began in April for the 800 miners at some dozen pits but when little progress was made, EPMU miners began taking industrial actions late in June.
<img height="60" src="" width="120" alt="" />
&nbsp; 
The situation intensified when HWE Mining locked out workers at Solid&rsquo;s Rotowaro mine near Huntly 13 days ago. EPMU members at other Solid Energy mines &ndash; particularly Huntly East, Spring Creek, Terrace, and New Vale &ndash; immediately took action and stopped production. 
 
The lockout reminded New Zealanders that Australian mining companies are only too anxious to export the agenda of Prime Minister John Howard of Australia. 
 
The sympathy strikes of other companies put enough pressure on HWE Mining to come to terms in its portion of the Mining Industry Multi-Employer Collective Agreement. Some half-dozen of the other mining contractors also settled two-year agreements. The EPMU has won yearly pay gains of 5% to 5.5% in this round of talks.
<img height="133" src="" width="200" alt="" />
EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little said the HWE Mining lockout was broken because of &ldquo;huge support from miners across the country.&rdquo; 
 
He added, &ldquo;Our members at Rotowaro stood strong in the face of some extreme employer militancy, and they&rsquo;ve managed to end the lockout and win the decent pay rise and improved conditions they were after. This was only achieved through the collective strength of miners.&rdquo; 
 
To date, the only contractor that has not come to terms with the EPMU is Doug Hood Mining, which operates Solid Energy&rsquo;s Stockton mine near Westport. EPMU members there took a 24-hour strike action on 27 July in protest to the contractor&rsquo;s stall tactics.

NZ Coal: Sympathy Strikes Counter Lockout, Pave Way for New Contracts

The European Works Council (EWC) of Alcan Packaging, facing imminent spin-off by new owner Rio Tinto, won a&nbsp;commitment that an Extraordinary Meeting of the Works Council&nbsp;would be held within 14 days&nbsp;after&nbsp;any announced sale of the company is made. Following frank discussions during EWC meetings on 25 July, where Alcan President and CEO Richard Evans reiterated Rio&rsquo;s intent to sell Alcan&rsquo;s packaging businesses, the commitment to hold a further Works Council meeting immediately following an announced sale is&nbsp;welcome news to packaging industry workers&rsquo; and their trade unions. 
 
The ICEM, a global union federation of 389 trade unions in 119 countries, applauded the commitment, calling it &ldquo;an important check-and-balance on corporate governance.&rdquo; The ICEM also congratulates the EWC and the trade unionists on the EWC for gaining this commitment. 
 
Evans told the EWC that Rio Tinto was hopeful of selling the collection of packaging businesses of as block, that there are serious buyers, and that a sale agreement could be completed soon. Peter Ellis, National Officer of ICEM UK affiliate Unite, welcomed the company&rsquo;s commitment.
<img height="138" alt="" src="" width="110" />
Rio Tinto&rsquo;s newly acquired flexible and specialty packaging businesses throughout the world are vast. The Australian company could realise &euro;5 billion from a sale. In 2003, the Canadian-based company purchased Norsk Hydro&rsquo;s packaging units, and the following year Alcan took over French-based Pechiney in a US$3.9 billion stock and cash deal. Alcan&rsquo;s packaging businesses produce products for the food, personal care, and pharmaceutical sectors.

Alcan Workers Win Commitment from Company at EWC

<img height="55" alt="" src="" width="138" />
Former ICEM Gen. Sec. Fred Higgs was awarded the Transport &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union&rsquo;s (TGWU) highest award on 4 July when the Unite Joint General Secretary, Tony Woodley, awarded him with the Gold Patch at the TGWU&rsquo;s last Policy Conference. 
 
Higgs served as ICEM general secretary from 1999 to his retirement in late 2006. He is a 40-year member of TGWU and began his long service career with the union in 1979. Prior to his election as ICEM general secretary, Higgs served as National Secretary of TGWU&rsquo;s chemicals, oil, and rubber sectors.
<img height="200" alt="" src="" width="300" />
&nbsp;Fred Higgs Speaking at TGWU's Policy Conference 
 

In a speech upon receiving the award, Higgs told delegates of his disgust after reaching Brussels with the UK Labour Party government&rsquo;s complicity in occupying Iraq. He also spoke on global labour solidarity, and gave the story of TGWU&rsquo;s Peter Booth intervening with a British-based company to reinstate two sacked trade union leaders in Thailand. They had been sacked in 2004 for trade union activities, and they turned to the ICEM for help. 
 
Booth not only won their reinstatement but together with Higgs and the ICEM, won a guarantee that trade union organisation would not be interfered with at their plant. In the year since the two leaders have been back at work, they, along with fellow workers grateful to Booth and the ICEM, have organised 11 of the 12 plants that this particular British company operates in Thailand.
<img height="300" alt="" src="" width="200" />
Peter Booth 
 

The TGWU Policy Conference is likely to be the last such biannual gathering since new forums and structures will result in TGWU&rsquo;s merger with Amicus to form Unite. The conference reviewed TGWU&rsquo;s aggressive organising project, demanded the withdrawal of British troops in Iraq, and took a tough stance on the abuse of labour agency workers in the UK. Delegates heard vivid stories of such abuses, including the real life situation of a Polish woman who was forced to live her car after her agency evicted her from living accommodations. 
 
The Policy Conference made history by electing the first and last woman to chair this year&rsquo;s proceedings. &ldquo;Same old story &hellip; as soon as a woman gets to the top, the job is abolished,&rdquo; joked Brenda Sanders. &ldquo;This union will be carrying forwards our finest traditions together with our colleagues in Amicus as we build Unite to a powerhouse in the world of work and the 21st century,&rdquo; she added.

Fred Higgs Receives Gold Patch Award from Transport &amp; General Workers in the UK

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Jeff Lawrence, the 17-year president of ICEM affiliate Liquor, Hospitality, and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU), won selection last week as Secretary-elect of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). 
 
He will succeed Greg Combet, who will stand down late this year as the day-to-day leader of the Australia&rsquo;s national labour centre and run for Parliament from the New South Wales district of Charlton in 2007 elections. Combet has served as secretary of the 1.9-million-member ACTU since the year 2000. 
<img height="187" alt="" src="" width="200" />
Jeff Lawrence, new ACTU Secretary-elect
Lawrence, 55, was the only person nominated for the post at the ACTU&rsquo;s Organising Conference on 13 June at the University of New South Wales. He began his trade union career in 1977 for the Federated Miscellaneous Workers Union, one of several predecessor unions to the 130,000-member LHMU. 
 
&ldquo;I am determined to work hard to see off the Howard government and its unfair IR laws,&rdquo; Lawrence stated. &ldquo;As ACTU Secretary, I want to work with Australian working families to ensure that they and their rights are given respect. (That includes) respect for them to be heard &hellip; in the workplace and in society in general; respect for their role as parents and carers; (and) respect for their skills and their ability to improve themselves. 
<img height="56" alt="" src="" width="350" />
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what WorkChoices, the Howard government&rsquo;s industrial law, has taken away.&rdquo; 
ACTU President Sharan Burrow called Lawrence a trade unionist who has led the charge against the Howard government&rsquo;s draconian labour relations reforms. &ldquo;He is from a union that has members at the forefront of the impact of WorkChoices,&quot; she said. &ldquo;I look forward to working with Jeff Lawrence and to developing a new partnership to lead the community campaign to restore the rights of working Australians taken away by the Australian government.&rdquo;

LHMU’s Jeff Lawrence to Succeed Greg Combet as head of Australian Council of Trade Unions

Archive

US Non-Union Miners Turn to UMWA in Aftermath of Utah Coal Tragedy

North American Trade Unions Condemn Secret and Undemocratic Efforts to Map New Energy Future

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - Nos. 22 & 23

Scholarship Submissions Due for Global Labour University’s Classes in Brazil, South Africa, Germany

Zambian Miners Get 20%; Canadian Firm Sacks Leaders of a Copper Strike

NUM Set to Strike DeBeers Tomorrow in South Africa

NZ Coal: Sympathy Strikes Counter Lockout, Pave Way for New Contracts

Alcan Workers Win Commitment from Company at EWC

Fred Higgs Receives Gold Patch Award from Transport & General Workers in the UK

LHMU’s Jeff Lawrence to Succeed Greg Combet as head of Australian Council of Trade Unions

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