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Canadian-based Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. should withdraw from Burma. That is the call from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) on the eve of Ivanhoe's annual shareholders' meeting. 
 
The company&rsquo;s joint venture with the Burmese military regime in the Monywa copper mine provides &ldquo;funds for the coffers of a regime that has been irrefutably linked to forced labour and narcotics trafficking,&rdquo; say CLC President Ken Georgetti and ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in a letter sent to Ivanhoe Chairman Robert Friedland. 
 
The Monywa mine, located in Sagiang, is also linked to mass conscription of involuntary labour. According to the UN&rsquo;s International Labour Organisation (ILO), 921,753 people were forced to build the railway connecting Monywa to the town of Pakokku. The Thazi dam hydroelectric plant which is the mine&rsquo;s power source was built using 3,000-5,000 forced labourers. 
 
The labour leaders cited the decision in November 2000 by the ILO, which is comprised of unions, employers and governments, to exhort corporations to &ldquo;review...the relations that they may have with [Burma] and take appropriate measures to ensure that [Burma] cannot take advantage of such relations to perpetuate or extend the system of forced or compulsory labour.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;We urge you to re-evaluate your direct business relations with the Burmese military junta in light of this global consensus,&rdquo; wrote Georgetti and Higgs. &ldquo;It is the position of the global labour movement that it is impossible to do business with the Burmese government or in Burma without subsidising forced labour and other human rights violations. Certainly in the case of Ivanhoe&rsquo;s partnership with the military junta, foreign investment is directly propping up the regime.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM is a global trade union federation uniting more than 20 million workers worldwide. The CLC represents 2.3 million working Canadians and their families. It is the voice of Canada's labour movement. 
 
A recent proclamation issued by the ICEM's energy union affiliates from the Asia/Pacific region, meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, called on oil and gas companies to &ldquo;cease investment in Burma while the use of forced labour continues.&rdquo; The unions represented were from Australia, Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Ivanhoe Mines Should Pull Out Of Burma, Unions Say

The Turkish government today decreed a two-month suspension of a major strike in the country's glass industry. 
 
The grounds for the ban? Apparently, the loss of glass output is a threat to &quot;national security&quot;! 
 
Turkey's national security seems to be a very fragile thing. Last year, it was &quot;endangered&quot; by a strike in the tyre industry, which was also promptly banned by decree. 
 
In fact, the Turkish government is simply using once again a catch-all clause that enables it to outlaw strikes at will. 
 
Today's &quot;suspension&quot; is under Article 33 of Turkey's Law on Collective Agreements, Strikes And Lock-Outs. This allows the government to suspend any strike or lock-out for sixty days if it is deemed to endanger &quot;public health or national security&quot;. 
 
Moreover, &quot;postponement&quot; of a strike under this legislation usually amounts in practice to an indefinite ban, because Article 34 of the same law empowers the labour ministry to impose arbitration at the end of the sixty days, unless the parties have either come to an agreement or voluntarily sought arbitration. 
 
Turkey's official arbitrators rarely decide in a union's favour. 
 
The Turkish glass, cement and earth workers' union Kristal-İş will appeal to the Supreme Court against today's decree, but in the meantime, the law obliges the union to suspend the strike. 
 
&quot;We think that there is no connection between the glass strike and national security,&quot; said Kristal-İş President Mustafa Bağ&ccedil;eci today. &quot;The hidden side of the decree is the employers' demands. It is the glass employers who have got this strike postponed.&quot; 
 
At the global level, Kristal-İş is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
&quot;To claim that a strike in the glass industry threatens national security is, quite frankly, absurd,&quot; writes ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in a letter sent today to Turkey's Prime Minister B&uuml;lent Ecevit. &quot;Your action flouts the most basic internationally recognised trade union rights. Clearly, current Turkish labour law would be wholly incompatible with membership of the European Union.&quot; 
 
90 percent of Turkish glass production has been halted by the strike, which was launched on 24 May at major glass production companies within Turkey's Şişe-Cam group. Some 6,000 workers are involved. 
 
The main issues are pay and subcontracting. The union has been negotiating a new collective agreement with Şişe-Cam since last December, but bargaining broke down over the employers' refusal to consider wage increases in line with inflation. Şişe-Cam insists that real pay will have to go down. The employers say that the International Monetary Fund programme for Turkey calls for cuts in workers' purchasing power. 
 
Subcontracting of labour is on the increase in the Turkish glass industry, and Kristal-İş is firmly opposed to this trend. Kristal-İş also wants an assurance that all Şişe-Cam workers who want to join the union will be allowed to do so. Managers in some Şişe-Cam subsidiaries have been denying workers the right to organise, Kristal-İş says.

Turkish Glass Strike Banned; to &#039;Protect National Security&#039;

Malaysia should release labour activist Tian Chua, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) urged today. 

<img height="255" alt="" src="" width="380" />
HAPPIER TIMES: Tian Chua (centre) just after the ICEM had helped to secure his release in 1998. With him were the ICEM's Asia-Pacific Regional Secretary Phee Jung-sun and Peter Colley of the ICEM-affiliated Australian miners' union CFMEU. 

This is not the first time that Tian has been arrested, but now an order has been issued for him to be detained without trial for two years, effective from 4 June 2001, under Malaysia's draconian Internal Security Act. He is currently in the Kamunting Detention Centre in Taiping. 
 
Tian is &quot;a dedicated and effective campaigner for labour rights in Asia,&quot; writes ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in a message to the Malaysian Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Tian &quot;is widely respected by his colleagues in the region and beyond,&quot; Higgs states. &quot;Certainly, he is not an advocate of violence... If he had done anything that posed a threat to the security of Malaysia, there would presumably be sufficient evidence to charge him. 
 
&quot;No such charges have been brought against him in any court of law,&quot; Higgs points out. &quot;On behalf of Tian Chua's colleagues worldwide, I therefore request you to ensure that he is released immediately and unconditionally.&quot;

Malaysia Detains Labour Activist: Tian Chua Jailed Now for Two Years

Illegal attempts by Turkish employers to break a strike today led to arrests - of strikers. 
 
Contrary to the provisions of the Turkish Labour Code, employers involved in the current labour dispute in the Turkish glass industry were today permitted to remove stocks from plants affected by the strike. Security forces then arrested trade unionists who opposed this illegal action. 
 
Among those detained is Ahmet Aksungur, branch chairman of the Turkish glass, ceramic and earth workers' union Kristal-İş. 
 
Globally, Kristal-İş is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which has protested to Turkish Prime Minister B&uuml;lent Ecevit over the arrests. 
 
&quot;Such repressive action is contrary to international labour standards,&quot; ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs pointed out in a message to Ecevit today. It will therefore &quot;do nothing to improve the perception of Turkey within the European Union and elsewhere.&quot; 
 
Higgs urged Ecevit to &quot;ensure the immediate, unconditional release of all the detained trade unionists, and an immediate end to the illegal strikebreaking by the glass industry employers.&quot; 
 
90 percent of Turkish glass production has been halted by the strike, which was launched on 24 May at major glass production companies within Turkey's Şişe-Cam group. Some 6,000 workers are involved. 
 
The main issues are pay and subcontracting. The union has been negotiating a new collective agreement with Şişe-Cam since last December, but bargaining broke down over the employers' refusal to consider wage increases in line with inflation. Şişe-Cam insists that real pay will have to go down. The employers say that the International Monetary Fund programme for Turkey calls for cuts in workers' purchasing power. 
 
Subcontracting of labour is on the increase in the Turkish glass industry, and Kristal-İş is firmly opposed to this trend. Kristal-İş also wants an assurance that all Şişe-Cam workers who want to join the union will be allowed to do so. Managers in some Şişe-Cam subsidiaries have been denying workers the right to organise, Kristal-İş says.

Turkish Glass Employers&#039; Strikebreaking Stirs Global Protest

Violent police action to end a strike at one of the world's biggest nylon manufacturers has been condemned by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Riot police and troops attacked Korea's Hyosung plant, in Ulsan, on Tuesday and broke up a 12-day-old strike there. The police had reportedly been called in by the Hyosung management. 
 
&quot;The Hyosung dispute is essentially over management bad faith during negotiations on employment security,&quot; ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs pointed out in a letter to Korean President Kim Dae-jung. &quot;It is therefore an industrial relations issue, and there was no good reason why riot police and troops should have intervened in the Hyosung dispute at all - let alone in the very violent way that they did.&quot; 
 
Higgs asked President Kim to &quot;put a stop to such unwarranted police interventions in industrial disputes.&quot; He also urged him to &quot;order the police to withdraw from the Hyosung plant&quot; and to &quot;bring your influence to bear on company managements so that they bargain in good faith with trade unions, notably in the case of Hyosung.&quot;

Global Union Protest Over Korean Police Raid

Global industrial unions today called for a new world body at ministerial level &quot;with a broad brief to cover all aspects of HIV/AIDS policy and strategy&quot;. 
 
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has made a global strategic review essential, says the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Meeting in Brussels today, its Executive called for the creation of a ministerial-level Intergovernmental Standing Committee (IGSC) on HIV/AIDS. 
 
&quot;The UN has begun to tackle the HIV/AIDS issue, particularly as regards the provision of assistance to African countries,&quot; ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs said today. But &quot;this is an inadequate approach,&quot; he insisted. &quot;It would be a mistake to concentrate on just one region, as this could deny funds to others in equal need. HIV/AIDS is a global problem which must be solved through global coordination.&quot; 
 
The IGSC should have &quot;a small permanent secretariat (say 3-4 persons),&quot; the ICEM suggests, and could perhaps be based at the headquarters of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva. 
 
Priority issues would be: 
 
EQUITY in access to medicines and medical infrastructure; in the balance between patent protection and the right to produce and market generics (cut-price &quot;copy drugs&quot;); and in human rights. 
 
CAPACITY - notably in relation to the economic situation of individual HIV/AIDS sufferers and of governments, and to production capacity for HIV/AIDS medicines. 
 
COORDINATION of HIV/AIDS-related activities, ranging from the local to the international level. 
 
COMMITMENT - by governments, by the pharmaceutical industry, by trade unions representing HIV/AIDS-affected workers and their families, by the international financial community and by international agencies and organisations involved in addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. 
 
The IGSC would also need to &quot;engage with international experts and with key stakeholder organisations,&quot; the ICEM points out. These include the WHO, UNAIDS, the World Bank, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the pharmaceutical industry and union internationals, notably the ICEM and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). 
 
The ICEM has particular interests in the HIV/AIDS issue. It represents the world's pharmaceutical workers. Another of its sectors is mining. An especially serious HIV/AIDS problem arises from the widespread use of hostels to house male mineworkers - either unmarried or separated from their families. Today, the ICEM again called on mining companies to end the &quot;hostel mentality&quot; and provide proper accommodation, including for families.

HIV/AIDS - Unions Call For World Strategy

As Thai unions prepare for a protest march in Bangkok tomorrow, industrial unions worldwide are declaring solidarity with their main demands. 
 
Key goals of the demonstration are wage rises and the scrapping of a draft anti-labour law. 
 
Organised by the electricity workers, the march will bring together representatives of 30 Thai unions. It will start at Bangkok's Victory monument, announced Banlue Hengprasert, leader of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) Labour Union. He said the march will end with a demonstration in front of the Labour Ministry, at around 6 pm local time. 
 
LIVING WAGE CALL 
 
On pay, the protesters will call for the legal minimum wage to be raised to 180 baht per day (just under four US dollars). They want the same rate to apply nationwide. At present, Bangkok and five suburban provinces have a daily minimum rate of 165 Baht. Six other provinces are on 143 Baht a day. In the rest of Thailand, the daily rate is 133 Baht. 
 
In practice, the minimum is often the maximum. Most Thai workers are on the legal minimum, but many in small- and medium-scale enterprises are actually paid below it. The legal minimum rate is set in national negotiations between the employers, the government and the various trade union confederations. Due partly to internal divisions, the national union centres have often been at a disadvantage in these talks, and there is widespread dissatisfaction with the minimum rates. In Bangkok, a family cannot live on much less than 500 Baht a day. 
 
Where industrial or company-level unions exist, their scope for bargaining with individual employers is severely circumscribed. They can, however, negotiate on annual increments, shift allowances and various fringe benefits. In some industries, unions have been able to secure substantial improvements in total real earnings. Thus, while average industrial earnings in 1998 were 4174.82 Baht per month, the figures for the same year in the paper manufacturing, chemical and food processing industries were 7998.91 Baht, 6721.42 Baht and 5412.89 Baht respectively. 
 
Now, though, many Thai employers have taken to demanding give-backs - in other words, cuts in allowances and benefits. And so, at a time of mounting inflation, average total earnings may actually fall. 
 
ANTI-UNION LAW OPPOSED 
 
Worse still, a law now in the pipeline would further weaken collective bargaining and the right to strike. This would inevitably depress wages, so the draft law is a second focus of tomorrow's protests. 
 
The Thai government has been pushing hard to get its Labour Relations Act on to the statute book. The law would give the labour minister sweeping new powers to impose arbitration. In effect, he could end any labour dispute by decree. He could also order unions not to demand wage rises - and employers not to pay them. These powers could be invoked for reasons of &quot;national security&quot; or &quot;public order&quot; but also in the case of undefined &quot;serious economic problems&quot;. 
 
Behind these harsh provisions, local commentators see the hand of the International Monetary Fund. Complying with IMF conditions - and appeasing foreign investors - is a major plank of Thai government policy during the current economic downturn. But if the government presses ahead with the legislation, it is likely to run into opposition both from the unions and from the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). As it stands, the law would breach ILO Conventions on collective bargaining and the right to strike. 
 
The unions want the government to drop the legislation, and instead to adopt a union draft that protects worker rights. 
 
Thailand is a touchstone for living standards and labour rights in newly industrialised countries. Asian and global industrial unions have therefore swung behind the Thai marchers' demands. Meeting today, the Asia-Pacific regional committee of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) declared full solidarity with the Thai unions. Similar statements are likely this week from the ICEM's global Executive and its women's committee, both of which will be meeting in Brussels. 
 
The EGAT Labour Union, which is organising the Bangkok demonstration, has applied for affiliation to the ICEM - a request that will come up for approval by the ICEM Executive this week. A number of the other Thai unions involved are already ICEM affiliates. Action on the Thai wage issue, in particular, was discussed during the ICEM Asia-Pacific regional women's conference in Bangkok this March. 
 
Other demands at tomorrow's march in Bangkok will be the immediate implementation of an unemployment insurance scheme; the extension of social insurance - including hospital coverage - to all workers; the doubling of child welfare payments; and the ending of a long lock-out at a textile factory. 
 
The unions have repeatedly put all the demands to the Labour Minister and his deputy, but have not received any adequate response.

Thai Labour Demo Draws Global Support

90 percent of Turkish glass production has been halted by a strike launched on 24 May. 

<img height="157" alt="" src="" width="380" />
photo: Kristal-İş 
Called by the glass, cement, ceramic and earth workers' union Kristal-İş, the strike has hit major glass production companies within Turkey's Şişe-Cam group. Some 6,000 workers are involved. 
 
The main issues are pay and subcontracting. The union has been negotiating a new collective agreement with Şişe-Cam since last December, but bargaining broke down over the employers' refusal to consider wage increases in line with inflation. Şişe-Cam insists that real pay will have to go down. The employers say that the International Monetary Fund programme for Turkey calls for cuts in workers' purchasing power. 
<img height="182" alt="" src="" width="380" />
photo: Kristal-İş 

Subcontracting of labour is on the increase in the Turkish glass industry, and Kristal-İş is firmly opposed to this trend. Kristal-İş also wants an assurance that all Şişe-Cam workers who want to join the union will be allowed to do so. Managers in some Şişe-Cam subsidiaries have been denying workers the right to organise, Kristal-İş says. 
 
At the global level, Kristal-İş is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
Subcontracting of labour is on the increase in the Turkish glass industry, and Kristal-İş is firmly opposed to this trend. Kristal-İş also wants an assurance that all Şişe-Cam workers who want to join the union will be allowed to do so. Managers in some Şişe-Cam subsidiaries have been denying workers the right to organise, Kristal-İş says. At the global level, Kristal-İş is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

Turkish Glass Strike Over Pay and Subcontracting

Norwegian electricity workers will strike this Friday over proposed legal changes that could allow large-scale outsourcing of jobs in the industry. 
 
The draft law is seen as a prelude to privatisation of the country's electricity sector, which is now mainly under state and municipal control. So far, the government has ignored calls from the power workers' union EL &amp; IT and the national labour confederation LO to withdraw the legislation. 
 
A first two-hour protest strike on 11 May will bring out 4,500 electricity workers across the country, EL &amp; IT announced yesterday. Altogether, the Norwegian power industry employs about 18,000 people. 
 
The union argues that outsourcing would compromise both security of supply and work safety. It would also pose a threat to electricity workers' jobs and employment conditions. 
 
At the global level, EL &amp; IT is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The strike was announced as the Norwegian trade union confederation LO was holding its annual congress. EL &amp; IT delegates to the congress, which is continuing, asked the Norwegian trade union movement as a whole to express support for the strike and to oppose electricity privatisation. Market-oriented restructuring in the sector had already resulted in higher prices to the consumer, EL &amp; IT's Svein Davidsen told the congress. Privatisation would mean &quot;centralisation and foreign ownership&quot;, and therefore the end of local control. 
 
The LO congress also heard a call for a tenfold increase in Norway's consumption of natural gas by the year 2010. A resolution tabled by the ICEM-affiliated oil and petrochemical workers' union NOPEF argues that greater industrial use of Norwegian gas reserves would cut pollution and boost employment. 
 
A switch to gas-fired electricity generation could cut Norway's CO2 emissions by 60 percent, NOPEF's Lars Myhre told the congress. Myhre, who chairs the ICEM energy workers' section, also said more gas should be used as a feedstock for Norwegian industry - notably the petrochemical sector, which &quot;stands ready to expand its activities if access to gas as a raw material is ensured.&quot; To that end, he called for the construction of a new gas pipeline to Norway's industrial Grenland region. Transport was another sector where greater use of gas would cut pollution, Myhre said. A transition to gas-powered ferries would create many new jobs, he pointed out. 
 
In similar vein, a motion to the LO congress from the ICEM-affiliated Norwegian chemical workers' union NKIF calls for the recuperation of energy from industrial processes. With proper public support, the union argues, Norwegian industry alone could retrieve almost 10 terawatt hours of energy per year from its own production processes. 
 
 
 
POSTSCRIPT: STRIKE SUCCEEDED WITHOUT HAPPENING 
 
Thanks to intensive union lobbying, and to the strike announcement by EL &amp; IT, a majority of Norwegian members of parliament had agreed by 10 May to vote against the draft legal changes to which the unions objected. The strike was therefore called off at the last minute, having achieved its aims just before it was held. The formal parliamentary vote will take place towards the end of this month.

Norwegian Power Strike Called Over Outsourcing Plan

Tomorrow is the fifteenth anniversary of the world's worst-ever nuclear accident. 
 
This is the moment to reflect on the future of the nuclear industry, says the energy workers' international ICEM, and particularly on ways of tackling the social problems raised by nuclear decommissioning. 
 
On 26 April 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, in Ukraine, exploded. Radiation spread far and near. Many of the workers and soldiers sent in to clean up the site died of radiation-related illnesses, and many more were permanently disabled. The long-term public health impact of the disaster is still being evaluated. Known effects include an increase in thyroid cancers among children in the worst-hit areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. 
 
A concrete &quot;sarcophagus&quot; was built over the devastated reactor, but this protective structure is known to be cracking. The international community has pledged more than 700 million US dollars towards sealing off the Chernobyl reactors. However, the full cost of closing and decommissioning the plant is likely to be higher than that. In addition, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development may soon provide a further 200 million dollars for the construction of two new nuclear reactors in Ukraine. 
 
On 15 December last year, the only reactor still operating at Chernobyl was shut down forever, and the station no longer generates power. 
 
&quot;Tomorrow is a time to remember all those who were killed and injured in the drive to contain the effects of the disaster,&quot; commented Fred Higgs in Brussels, &quot;but it is also a time to make real social provision for the Chernobyl workers of today.&quot; 
 
Higgs is General Secretary of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). The 20-million-strong ICEM represents electricity workers worldwide, including those in the nuclear industry. 
 
&quot;The world owes a great debt to those who sacrificed their lives and health in order to limit the build-up of radiation after the Chernobyl disaster,&quot; Higgs said. &quot;One thing that we can and must do now is to ensure that a proper social plan is put in place for the Chernobyl workers and their families, so that they do not suffer unduly from the effects of the shutdown. The international community has found large funds to tackle the physical radiation from Chernobyl. It must also help to limit the social fall-out.&quot; 
 
The Ukrainian nuclear workers' union ATU is an ICEM affiliate. Together, the ATU and the international have mounted a sustained campaign to ensure that both the Ukrainian government and the international community fund an adequate social plan for workers displaced by the Chernobyl closure. This is all the more urgent because the Chernobyl workers and their families are concentrated in the town of Slavutich, which was built to house them outside the most contaminated zone. The Slavutich economy is dependent on the power station.
&nbsp;Last year, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a social plan for Slavutich, and the national and local authorities have already begun to put it into effect. The reduction in the Chernobyl workforce will be gradual. Of the 10,000 or so Chernobyl workers, about 1,700 will lose their jobs this year. But decommissioning will keep some employed up to 2008, and possibly beyond. In the interim, the government has brought in measures to guarantee the incomes of dismissed Chernobyl workers. 
 
International assistance is still needed, though - notably to start up new small-scale enterprises in Slavutich, as a way of creating jobs. 
 
And, as a recent ICEM-organised conference in Kiev heard, Slavutich may have to tackle particular health issues, such as the stress-related problems caused both by working at Chernobyl and by the protracted wrangling over its closure. 
 
Held in the Ukrainian capital on 9-11 April, the ICEM conference brought together nuclear industry trade unionists from the Ukraine, but also from a number of other countries. There was, for example, strong representation from Lithuania and Bulgaria - two countries that will face similar decommissioning problems. 
Held in the Ukrainian capital on 9-11 April, the ICEM conference brought together nuclear industry trade unionists from the Ukraine, but also from a number of other countries. There was, for example, strong representation from Lithuania and Bulgaria - two countries that will face similar decommissioning problems. 
 
Conference participants said that nuclear is and will remain an important energy source, but they also recognised that the industry raises major safety issues. They called for international assistance for the decommissioning of Chernobyl, as well as for job creation and medical assistance to the Chernobyl workers. And they urged the ICEM to lobby for the safe and socially responsible decommissioning of nuclear power plants. It was suggested that interested ICEM affiliates should set up an informal contact group to develop a strategy for the social and economic protection of nuclear workers when their stations are decommissioned. 
 
At the same time, ICEM representatives at the meeting made it clear that international social action on behalf of Ukraine's workers could not be divorced from political developments within the country. Corruption and attacks on democracy would make it more difficult to mobilise international support. 
 
&quot;The longer-term future of the nuclear industry is uncertain,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs today. &quot;On the one hand, there are quite legitimate public concerns about the safety of nuclear plants and about the storage of nuclear waste. On the other hand, nuclear power generation produces virtually no emissions of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide or nitrogen oxide. So, in view of the need to tackle global warming, nuclear may continue to be part of the world's energy mix for some considerable time. 
 
&quot;What can be said with confidence,&quot; Higgs pointed out,&quot;is that nuclear power generation will be needed in many countries in the short- to medium-term. It emerged very clearly from our Kiev conference, and from our previous conferences of nuclear workers, that the industry can function only if it has the full confidence of the public. And it will have that confidence only if it is entirely frank about all the issues involved, including safety. So, on the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the world's nuclear workers call upon the industry to ensure full, complete and open public information about its operations, including prompt information on any incidents. Nothing less than complete transparency will do. 
 
&quot;But at the same time,&quot; Higgs added, &quot;it is clear that many nuclear power stations will have to be decommissioned in the near future. The problems are particularly pressing, and particularly daunting, in countries that have Soviet-designed reactors, but the issue will ultimately confront all the countries that use nuclear power. Of the world's 430 existing reactors, 150 were built before 1980. Thirty years is a typical age for a nuclear plant, even though many governments are extending the life of these stations.&quot; 
 
Certainly, many countries will be concerned. 
 
Nuclear generation currently provides some 17 percent of the world's electricity - about the same as hydro power. Three countries - France, Belgium and Lithuania - rely on nuclear power for more than 50 percent of their supply. In another twelve countries, including Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden and Ukraine, nuclear plants produce 30 percent or more of the electricity. And a large number of developing nations, including Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Mexico and Pakistan, have operational nuclear power plants. 
 
Especially in parts of Asia, energy demand is growing rapidly and nuclear is seen as an attractive option. Japan, Korea and China are among the countries that have ambitious nuclear power programmes for the next few decades. In 1999, 38 new reactors were reported to be under construction in the world, with a total capacity of 31700 megawatts. However, in major nuclear producing countries such as the US, the UK, France and Germany, no new capacity is being planned. 
 
&quot;Socially, as well as technically and environmentally, the world has every interest in getting the Chernobyl closure right,&quot; Higgs concluded. &quot;The decommissioning of Chernobyl is just the first case among many.&quot;

Chernobyl on 15th Anniversary: Unions Tackle Social Fall-Out

Archive

Ivanhoe Mines Should Pull Out Of Burma, Unions Say

Turkish Glass Strike Banned; to 'Protect National Security'

Malaysia Detains Labour Activist: Tian Chua Jailed Now for Two Years

Turkish Glass Employers' Strikebreaking Stirs Global Protest

Global Union Protest Over Korean Police Raid

HIV/AIDS - Unions Call For World Strategy

Thai Labour Demo Draws Global Support

Turkish Glass Strike Over Pay and Subcontracting

Norwegian Power Strike Called Over Outsourcing Plan

Chernobyl on 15th Anniversary: Unions Tackle Social Fall-Out

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