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The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) has urged the Chevron Corporation to settle strikes at two US coal mines. 
 
Currently, 520 members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) are on strike against Pittsburg &amp; Midway Coal Mining Company (P&amp;M), a wholly-owned Chevron subsidiary. The strike at the McKinley mine near Window Rock, Arizona on the Navajo Nation territory, involving 310 UMWA members, has been ongoing since May 14. At the Kemmerer mine in Kemmerer, Wyoming, 210 UMWA members have been on strike since May 28. The UMWA is affiliated at the global level to the 20-million-strong ICEM. 
 
In a letter to David J. O&rsquo;Reilly, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chevron Corporation, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs expressed concern about &quot;the company&rsquo;s retention of outside legal counsel which has the reputation for promoting, instead of resolving, conflict; the company&rsquo;s hiring of military-type security guards (one of whom has already been arrested by Navajo police), and the company&rsquo;s demand that the union accept a pension package inferior to those offered by your competitors in the coal industry.&quot; 
 
&quot;The United Mine Workers of America is a valued affiliate of our federation,&quot; Higgs continued, &quot;and we intend to do everything possible to support them, including notifying our affiliates around the world with members employed by Chevron Corporation and Caltex Petroleum Corporation about the ongoing dispute. I strongly urge you to do everything possible to bring about a speedy end to this dispute.&quot; 
 
Already responding to the solidarity appeal is the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE), which represents approximately 2,000 Chevron oil and chemical workers in the United States. &quot;We will support the UMWA in any way we can,&quot; said PACE Executive Vice President Robert Wages. &quot;We will mobilise our members at Chevron&rsquo;s oil and chemical operations to ensure that justice is won at these coal mines.&quot; PACE is also affiliated globally to the ICEM. 
 
&quot;We are grateful for this show of support and solidarity,&quot; said Jerry Jones, UMWA Vice President and the union's chief negotiator with P&amp;M. &quot;Our members on strike at McKinley and Kemmerer are stronger and more resolved than ever and, with this show of support from other Chevron workers in the US and around the world, I am certain we will win a fair and just contract with P&amp;M.&quot;

Settle US Coal Strike, Global Union Tells Chevron

Days before a multi-nation meeting about the closing of Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant, leaders of 10 US unions representing 4.9 million workers today wrote to President Clinton, urging him to &quot;take active leadership&quot; to ensure adequate funding to aid the 12,000 Chernobyl workers and their families. 
 
Signing the letter were union presidents George Becker, United Steelworkers of America; Douglas Dority, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union; Edward Fire, International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine &amp; Furniture Workers; Frank Hanley, International Union of Operating Engineers; Jay Mazur, Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees; Brian McWilliams, International Longshore and Warehouse Union; Cecil E. Roberts, United Mine Workers of America; Andrew Stern, Service Employees International Union; and Boyd Young, Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union. Also signing were Robert Clark, Secretary-Treasurer of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America; and Fred Higgs, General Secretary of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The US signers all head unions that are affiliates of the ICEM, a global industrial trade union federation representing more than 20 million workers worldwide. ICEM affiliates include the Trade Union of Nuclear Energy and Industry of Ukraine (ATU). The ATU represents the workers at Chernobyl, the site of the worst-ever nuclear accident in 1986. 
 
Governments of the G-7 nations are sending representatives to Berlin on July 5 to discuss Chernobyl's closure, scheduled for December 15. However, according to the ICEM's Higgs, &quot;not enough attention is being paid to shielding Chernobyl's workers from economic disaster.&quot; 
 
Higgs explained that &quot;under a Memorandum of Understanding signed in Ottawa in 1995, western commitments to fund the Chernobyl closure included a pittance - a mere 4 million US dollars - to help displaced workers. In 1997, experts from the governments of the United States, the European Union and Ukraine drafted a Social Impact Plan to provide retraining and new jobs for Chernobyl workers in case the plant was closed. Today, it is estimated that fully funding the Social Impact Plan would cost between 50 million and 100 million dollars.&quot; 
 
He said that &quot;Western nations are proposing to spend some 875 million dollars on projects such as building a new, safe shell to contain dangerous radiation&quot;. 
 
&quot;Isn't it reasonable to ask that less than one-eighth of that amount be spent to ensure affected workers have the benefit of a safety net?&quot; Higgs said. &quot;We believe that it is.&quot; 
 
The union leaders' letter to Clinton says: &quot;The July 5, 2000, Pledging Conference in Berlin would seem to be an excellent opportunity for the U.S. Government to reaffirm its commitment to assist in funding ... to ensure that ... the future of the Chernobyl workers (and) their families ... is protected.

Unions Press Clinton To Aid Chernobyl Workers

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko must end his government's serious breaches of trade union rights, a world labour federation urged today. 
 
In a fax to Lukashenko, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) backed a union complaint to the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) against the Belarus government. The ICEM also pledged &quot;pratical assistance&quot; for any other measures considered necessary by ICEM-affiliated unions in Belarus. 
 
Belarus is flouting its commitments under ILO Conventions 87 and 98, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs told Lukashenko. The country is fully signed up to both Conventions, which protect freedom of association and collective bargaining. 
 
Higgs cited various breaches of &quot;these fundamental human rights&quot; in present-day Belarus: 
 
State and employer interference 
The head of the presidential administration ordered ministers to take control of union elections and to ensure that &quot;constructive forces&quot; are elected. Subsequently, enterprise directors and ministry officials have been trying to manipulate trade union conferences in order to ensure the election of pro-government chairpersons and delegates. 
 
Strike curbs 
The legal requirements for calling a strike are highly restrictive and take at least two months to complete. And the President is empowered to postpone any strike for another three months on the ill-defined grounds of a supposed threat to national security, public order, public health or the rights and freedom of other persons. 
 
Harassment of union members 
Employees have been dismissed for taking part in trade union activities or threatened with dismissal if they do not leave their trade union. The state security service, the KGB, has been observing trade union activities and has paid regular visits to trade unionists for &quot;information purposes&quot;. 
 
Compulsory registration 
The state has made trade union registration obligatory and demands the immediate dissolution of non-registered unions. At the same time, the registration requirements are so cumbersome and complicated that in practice it has been virtually impossible for many trade union organisations to obtain registration. 
 
Barriers to organising 
A minimum of 500 founding members, representing the majority of regions of the Republic of Belarus and Minsk, is required in order to set up a nationwide trade union organisation. The list of names has to be provided to the Ministry of Justice. To establish a trade union in enterprises, offices, organisations and other places of work, membership by at least 10% of the entire workforce is required, with a minimum of ten people. This makes it virtually impossible to create new trade union organisations. 
 
Higgs strongly urged Lukashenko to &quot;withdraw the discriminatory measures without delay and to ensure respect for trade union rights in your country, both in law and in practice&quot;. 
 
Bill Jordan, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, will be visiting Belarus on 11-12 July. Lukashenko should heed Jordan's recommendations, Higgs said, and should &quot;implement them in full&quot;.

Belarus: World&#039;s Unions Condemn Rights Violations

Shareholders are pressing US-based oil multinational Mobil to review its investments in Nigeria in the light of continuing human rights violations there. 
 
Two institutional shareholders announced today that they will be tabling a human rights motion at Mobil's annual shareholders' meeting on 14 May. In particular, they want the company to push for the release of two detained Nigerian oilworkers' leaders. 
 
The Mobil shareholders' move is a further step in the world trade union campaign to free Milton Dabibi, General Secretary of oil and gas workers' union PENGASSAN, and Frank Kokori, General Secretary of oil and gas workers' union NUPENG. 
 
Kokori has been detained without trial in Nigeria since 1994 and Dabibi since January 1996. Both are in poor health, and their condition is reported to be deteriorating rapidly. They are still being denied access to the medical care that they need. They are also barred from contact with lawyers and with their unions, which are being run by government-imposed administrators. Dabibi and Kokori are both recognised by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience. 
 
The two Mobil shareholders tabling the motion are Franklin Research and Development Corporation, a US-based socially responsible investment firm with 500 million US dollars in client assets, and the Service Employees International Union Master Trust. They have jointly filed a resolution asking the Mobil board of directors to review and develop guidelines for company investments in countries where &quot;there is a pattern of ongoing and systematic violation of human rights; a government is illegitimate; there is a call by human right advocates, pro-democracy organisations or legitimately elected representatives for economic sanctions; and Mobil's long-term financial performance may be potentially threatened by international criticism, economic sanctions and boycotts by consumers and local governments.&quot; 
 
The resolution notes that all of these factors are in place in Nigeria. Mobil is in direct partnership with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and has made payments, including royalties, fees and taxes, to the military government. The resolution further notes that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has found Nigeria in violation of internationally-accepted labour standards and has demanded the release of union leaders Frank Kokori and Milton Dabibi and others held incommunicado without charge or trial. 
 
Last week, the ILO voiced &quot;outrage&quot; over Nigeria's continued flouting of basic labour rights. The ILO, a UN agency in which the world's unions, employers and governments are represented, has now set up a special commission to investigate worker rights in Nigeria, notably the situation of the imprisoned trade unionists. 
 
&quot;It is past time for Mobil to take action on behalf of Kokori and Dabibi,&quot; said Andrew Stern, President of the 1.1-million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU). &quot;Reports from Nigeria indicate that these union leaders are very sick and may die in jail.&quot; Mobil, he insisted, must &quot;use its influence with the Nigerian government to seek the release of the duly elected leaders of its Nigerian employees.&quot; 
 
&quot;Mobil's complete lack of action on human rights in Nigeria has exposed the company to considerable business risk,&quot; said Simon Billenness, senior analyst of Franklin Research and Development Corporation. &quot;Until democracy is restored there, Nigeria provides an unstable business climate.&quot; 
 
The two shareholders have a combined investment in Mobil Corp. of 49,500 shares, worth more than 3.9 million US dollars. 
 
Leading the world trade union campaign to free Dabibi and Kokori is the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which PENGASSAN, NUPENG and the SEIU are affiliated. 
 
The ICEM has called for full UN economic sanctions against Nigeria, including an oil embargo, unless the ILO commission is permitted to enter the country and Dabibi and Kokori are released without further delay. Meanwhile, the ICEM is maintaining its own preparations for targeted action against Nigerian oil exports into a number of key countries - including the USA, which is the biggest importer of Nigerian crude (see ICEM UPDATE 20/98). 
 
The inclusion of the shareholder resolution on Mobil's proxy statement follows meetings on this issue between senior Mobil management, institutional shareholders and other concerned organisations. 
 
Corporate human rights policies have already been discussed at the global level between the ICEM and a number of multinationals, including Shell.

Nigerian Rights Abuses: Mobil Shareholders Seek Investment Review

Oil multinational Total is to resume sales of World Cup '98 footballs bearing its logo, a spokeswoman told ICEM UPDATE this afternoon. She said the company had received &quot;formal certification&quot; that no child labour was involved in the production of the balls. The certification came from Lucerne-based ISL Marketing, which handles licensing deals for the World Cup. Total has therefore lifted its suspension of its supply contract with Dutch-based football manufacturer Smits Plastics. 
 
French oilworkers' unions had raised the issue with Total after video footage was screened on French TV, apparently showing Pakistani children stitching World Cup soccer balls bearing the Total logo. Both Total and Smits say they have examined the footage from which the TV version was edited. They claim that the pictures screened on French TV were a &quot;misleading montage&quot;. 
 
This does not, of course, mean that child labour has been eliminated from Pakistan's football industry, which produces most of the world's stitched soccer balls. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the textile workers' international ITGLWF and the commercial workers' FIET are holding further discussions with football's world governing body, FIFA, and the sporting goods industry concerning child labour and other labour rights issues in the sporting goods industry.

Total Resumes Football Sales

Escalating its pressure on the Nigerian government, the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) has launched a Commission of Inquiry to investigate trade union rights abuses there. Earlier, in unusually strong language, a key ILO committee had voiced &quot;outrage&quot; over Nigeria's continued flouting of internationally recognised labour rights. 
 
The Commission of Enquiry was set up yesterday by the ILO's Governing Body, in which the world's governments, employers and trade unions are represented. Significantly, the commission was established under Article 26 of the ILO Constitution, whose provisions are invoked only in the event of persistent and serious violations of international labour standards and the repeated refusal of a member state to bring its labour practices into line with ILO rulings. Such a commission's findings are final. According to international lawyers, its conclusions can then be challenged only in the International Court of Justice in The Hague. 
 
The ILO Committee on Freedom of Association has repeatedly called on Nigeria's military-led government to release imprisoned trade unionists, end harassment of trade unions and take measures to guarantee respect for the civil liberties essential to trade union rights. In recent findings, the Committee underscored the persistent deterioration of trade union rights and denounced the non-respect of civil liberties in Nigeria. 
 
In its current session, the Committee expressed its &quot;outrage&quot; at the way in which the Nigerian government has ignored repeated requests to modify its labour regime and allow a special mission into the country to examine the state of trade union rights and visit imprisoned trade unionists. 
 
The Committee said the Nigerian government has repeatedly ignored calls for a mission to examine trade union rights in the country and to visit trade unionists detained without trial, &quot;at least one of whom has been detained for over three years.&quot; 
 
This is a reference to Frank Kokori, General Secretary of Nigerian oil and gas workers' union NUPENG. Kokori has been held since 1994. His colleague Milton Dabibi, General Secretary of Nigerian oil and gas workers' union PENGASSAN, has been in jail since January 1996. Neither has been charged with any offence. 
 
The two Nigerian labour leaders are recognised as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International. Their health is reported to be deteriorating. They have been denied access to adequate medical care and legal assistance. Their unions are being run by government-imposed &quot;sole administrators.&quot; Union bank accounts have been frozen, and the check-off of union dues has been frozen. Many oilworkers sacked on government orders after the 1994 strike in the Nigerian oil industry have never been reinstated. 
 
 
 
World oil conference protest 
 
This is not the first time the Nigerian government has been in trouble at the ILO recently. 
 
Nigeria was seriously embarrassed in full view of the world's oil companies, oil unions and governments last month at an ILO world conference on industrial relations and freedom of association in the oil refining sector. 
 
Conceived as a mainly technical meeting, the conference was in fact completely overshadowed by the cases of Dabibi and Kokori. The two democratically elected oilworkers' leaders had been invited by name to take part in the talks, but the Nigerian government refused to release them so that they could attend. 
 
The workers' group at the conference, consisting of oilworkers' leaders from all continents, was disgusted by the presence of Nigerian government representatives there while the Nigerian oil unions are under government control and their elected leaders are rotting in jail. This was, after all, a UN-backed world conference on how to promote freedom of association in oil refining ... 
 
Coordinating the workers' group was the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the two Nigerian oil and gas unions are affiliated. 
 
The workers' group kept Nigeria at the top of the agenda throughout last month's conference and intensively lobbied government and employer representatives. As a result, the governmental, oil company and oil union delegates to the meeting adopted a formal conclusion referring specifically to the ILO's ongoing Freedom of Association case 1793 (Nigeria) and calling on the ILO Governing Body to resolve problems. Yesterday's Governing Body decision is in part a response to that call from the world's oil industry and governments. 
 
 
 
Sanctions call 
 
&quot;The Nigerian government is thumbing its nose at the UN and its specialised agency, the ILO,&quot; commented ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe today. &quot;It is therefore cocking a snook at the world community. The ILO commission must be permitted to enter Nigeria without delay, and Milton Dabibi and Frank Kokori must be released now. If not, the only adequate UN response will be the introduction of full economic sanctions against Nigeria, including the imposition of a world embargo on Nigerian oil exports.&quot; 
 
In the meantime, Thorpe said, key ICEM affiliates would maintain preparations for targeted international action of their own against Nigerian oil. This readiness includes stepped-up campaigning by oilworkers in the USA, the world's biggest importer of Nigerian crude (see ICEM UPDATE 20/1998). The campaign to free Dabibi and Kokori is supported by the world trade union movement as a whole, including the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), which organises seafarers and port workers worldwide.

ILO &quot;Outrage&quot; Over Nigerian Abuses

Oil multinational Total has suspended distribution of World Cup '98 footballs bearing its logo, following allegations that they were made by children. 
 
The balls were to have been sold at the company's filling stations across Europe as part of a sales promotion. But a Total spokeswoman told ICEM UPDATE this afternoon that the company has temporarily blocked distribution of the footballs. Pending investigations, it has also suspended its contract with the supplier, Dutch-based Smits Plastics, and has instructed service stations not to sell any of the balls that have already been distributed. 
 
Total is &quot;extremely surprised&quot; by the allegations, the spokeswoman said. Meetings are, she stated, continuing today at the company's headquarters in France to &quot;try to understand what happened.&quot; In particular, Total is checking if the footballs shown being made by Pakistani children in recent video footage are, in fact, those that it ordered. 
 
French oil workers' unions affiliated to the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) had asked Total for an urgent explanation of the video scenes, which were subsequently screened on French television. 
 
Total told the unions, FCE-CFDT and F&eacute;d&eacute;chimie CGTFO, that it had ordered World Cup footballs, intended for a sales promotion, from Smits Plastics. The World Cup organisers have licensed Smits to produce and market footballs bearing the World Cup '98 logo. Total points out that Smits has twice confirmed in writing that no children are engaged in its football production in Sialkot, Pakistan. 
 
Via its French affiliates, the ICEM has received copies of two faxes from Smits Plastics to Total. Both were sent from Smits' offices in Belgium. The first dates from 27 May 1997, when Total was concluding the production contract. This fax states: &quot;The balls are hand-sewn, with checks to ensure that no children are involved.&quot; The second fax, dated 19 March 1998, says: &quot;We hereby reconfirm that the 'TOTAL balls' are not manufactured by children.&quot; [Both quotes are translations from the original French.] 
 
Total had, its spokeswoman confirmed today, received Smits Plastic's address from Swiss-based ISL Marketing, which is handling licensing deals for the World Cup. 
 
Publicised by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the video material shows young Pakistani children stitching soccer balls bearing the official France '98 World Cup logo. Some also appear to carry the logos of Total and Mastercard and the signature of Brazilian football legend Pele. The children, some working side by side with adults, are believed to receive around 30 US cents each for footballs which sell overseas for up to 75 US dollars. 
 
The video was shot earlier this month by a journalist investigating child labour for the unions. He visited houses and workshops in villages near Sialkot, Pakistan, where most of the world's soccer balls are stitched. In Jarawalli village, he filmed young boys stitching footballs, and interviewed a family of six young girls, aged between 5 and 12. The five-year-old was punching holes in the leather pieces, which are then sewn by her sisters. 
 
Contacted by ICEM UPDATE today, Smits Plastics' office in Belgium again insisted that their footballs are not produced by child labour. The company's plant in Sialkot, Pakistan, employs only adults, a company spokesman said. He also stated that the plant had repeatedly been inspected by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) as part of a campaign against the use of child labour in Sialkot, which is the centre of the world's soccer ball industry. He did, however, conceed that some production is still sent out to home-based workers, but he repeated that children are not involved. 
 
Smits says there is currently a brisk market for pirated &quot;World Cup&quot; footballs, and suggests that the video footage shows such unlicensed production. 
 
The ICFTU, ICEM and other union internationals are cooperating in a campaign against the exploitation of child labour worldwide. 
 
In fact, football's world governing body FIFA already has an agreement with the international trade union movement to help phase out the use of child labour in football production. The accord is with the ICFTU, the textile and allied workers' international ITGLWF and the FIET union international, whose coverage includes shop workers. To implement the agreement, FIFA and the ILO last year introduced inspection procedures for football production. Union internationals will now be holding new talks with FIFA, to raise concerns that local companies are evading the inspections.

Total Stops Sale Of &quot;Child Labour&quot; Footballs

French oil workers are seeking an urgent clarification from energy multinational Total over the use of the company's logo on footballs produced by child labour. Total is headquartered in France. 
 
Trade union investigators have just released new video footage of young Pakistani children stitching soccer balls, apparently bearing the official World Cup logo. Some also appear to carry the logos of Total and Mastercard and the signature of Brazilian football legend Pel&eacute;. 
 
The children, some working side by side with adults, are believed to receive around 30 US cents each for footballs which sell overseas for up to US$75. 
 
Earlier this month, a journalist investigating child labour for the unions visited houses and workshops in villages near Sialkot, Pakistan, where most of the world's soccer balls are stitched. In Jarawalli village, he filmed young boys stitching footballs, and interviewed a family of six young girls, aged between 5 and 12. The five-year-old was punching holes in the leather pieces, which are then sewn by her sisters. 
 
The video footage is being publicised by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), and is likely to be screened on French TV shortly. The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and other union internationals are cooperating with the ICFTU in a campaign against the exploitation of child labour worldwide. 
 
It is not yet clear whether Total actually authorised the use of its logo on the child-made footballs, but the ICEM-affiliated French chemical and energy workers' union FCE-CFDT says it is &quot;now taking all necessary steps vis-a-vis the General Management of the Total group in order to obtain full clarification of this affair.&quot; 
 
And the union declares: &quot;Without wishing to anticipate the answers that it will receive, the FCE-CFDT reaffirms its unswerving commitment, within the international trade union movement, to the struggle for the respect of working people's rights and basic freedoms. It is up to Total to provide rapidly all the explanations that have been asked for. The FCE-CFDT will be watching to make sure it does.&quot; 
 
In fact, football's world governing body FIFA already has an agreement with the international trade union movement to help phase out the use of child labour in football production. The accord is with the ICFTU, the textile and allied workers' international ITGLWF and the FIET union international, whose coverage includes shop workers. To implement the agreement, FIFA and the UN's International Labour Organisation last year introduced inspection procedures for football production. Union internationals will now be holding new talks with FIFA, to raise concerns that local companies are evading the inspections.

Unions Blow Whistle On Child Labour Footballs

Good living standards for Palestinian workers are crucial to peace in the Middle East, Israeli union leader Amir Peretz declared yesterday. &quot;Starving people do not believe in the Peace Process,&quot; Peretz added. 
 
He had just returned from Egypt, where he had discussions with President Mubarak. Peretz, who is Chairman of the Israeli general labour federation Histadrut, asked Mubarak to encourage closer relations between Egyptian and Israeli unions. At the global level, Histadrut is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), as are Egyptian chemical, petroleum and public utility unions. 
 
The Middle East peace process is essential to economic progress and development and to the well-being of all peoples living in the area, Peretz said on his return to Israel. Histadrut, he emphasised, stands firmly behind its policy that Palestinians must receive priority in employment opportunities, over foreign workers. 
 
Earlier, Peretz had taken part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv to demand Israeli government action against unemployment. The demonstration followed news of more factory closures in Israel.

Palestinian Living Standards Key, Israeli Union Leader Says

Potash workers in Belarus are leading the fight against anti-union measures brought in by the country's President, Alexander Lukashenko. 
 
The potash mining and fertiliser company Belkaliy, based in Soligorsk, has become the main focus of labour discontent with Lukashenko's rule. 
 
On 14 December, the Belarus Council of Ministers issued a decree banning the check-off of union dues. This was just the latest in a long series of anti-union measures ranging from the freezing of union bank accounts to surveillance by the state security service, the KGB. 
 
The unions are challenging the check-off ban in the courts, as the measure flouts existing collective agreements, labour laws and a previous ruling by the constitutional court. It also violates the international union rights standards set by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) and ratified by Belarus. The ILO has repeatedly criticised breaches of freedom of association in Belarus. 
 
In Soligorsk on 11 January, two unions launched a campaign against the Lukashenko government's anti-union measures. Belkhimprofsouz and the Independent Union of Belarus held a rally at which workers unanimously condemned the illegal measures against trade unions and backed an appeal to end the persecution. They also demanded that the check-off ban be lifted by 1 February. Otherwise, a five-minute token strike would be held as a first protest, and other Belarussian unions would be invited to join. This was a powerful signal, as Belkaliy is the country's biggest earner of hard currency. 
 
At the global level, the unions at Belkaliy are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
ICEM regional Vice-President Alexander Yurkin dispatched a protest letter to Lukashenko, while the ICEM's regional coordinator Andre Mrost sent a solidarity message to the rally in Soligorsk. Both documents were read out at the rally and were published in local union papers. 
 
Letters of protest to the Belarus government, and of solidarity to the Belarus unions, were also sent by the ICEM's Russian affiliates. Belarus and Russia have strong cultural ties. Indeed, a political union between the two countries has sometimes been mooted. Russian trade unions are therefore particularly concerned about recent developments in Belarus. Russia's President Putin is also understood to have pressed Lukashenko to reopen dialogue with the Belarussian unions. 
 
But Lukashenko has so far turned a deaf ear. Interviewed by the national press agency Belpan on 1 February, he repeated that he would not rescind the check-off ban. And he described trade unions as an &quot;army of idlers&quot;. 
 
 
 
 
OFFICIAL DISPUTE 
 
In another sign of the times, the planned token strike was declared illegal in advance by a Soligorsk court. The unions, already facing financial problems due to the check-off ban and other anti-union measures, were threatened with severe sanctions if they went ahead with the strike. 
 
So they decided instead to launch the procedure for declaring an official dispute with the company, even though the current labour legislation makes this a very time-consuming business. 
 
Amongst other things, it entails the holding of branch meetings to formulate the union's demands, followed by a conference of delegates who have to be specially elected for the occasion. 
 
As the two unions at Belkaliy have separate collective agreements, they were also required to hold separate conferences. First off was Belkhimprofsouz. The ICEM Vice-President and regional coordinator arrived on the eve of the conference and discussed final preparations with the union's President, Ludmila Grushetskaya. 
 
The union decided to put only one item on the conference agenda: a request to management to continue the check-off of union dues, in line with the collective agreement. Failure to meet this demand would automatically trigger an official dispute. 
 
Invited to the conference, Belkaliy managers argued that they could not comply, as the company is state-owned and has to obey the government. They also claimed that the threat of a dispute had led the firm's fertiliser customers in places as far away as South Korea to think twice about signing new contracts. 
 
To roars of laughter from the audience, a mineworker shouted back: &quot;You say that in South Korea, which is several thousand miles away, they've already heard about our dispute. Yet the leadership of our country, just 130 km away in Minsk, seem completely unaware of it. Why don't you, the company management, enlighten them?&quot; 
 
Guest speakers at the conference included Franz Vitko, the newly elected President of the Belarus Trade Union Federation, as well as the ICEM Vice-President and regional coordinator. 
 
A secret ballot produced overwhelming support for the demand: 359 in favour, 37 against and 14 abstentions, so the chemical union is now engaged in an official dispute on the check-off issue. The next steps will be negotiation and arbitration. This will pave the way for the chemical workers and other unions to use the same procedure against the check-off ban at other sites. The Independent Union of Belarus and its President, Viktor Babaed, have also launched this procedure. 
 
Meanwhile, the Belarus unions' national federations are planning a national day of action after 20 March. 
 
The ICEM's Eastern European unions are considering possible financial assistance, plus a wider appeal to ICEM affiliates elsewhere. Belarus unions favour the idea of picketing Belarussian embassies around the world. 
 
 
 
 
PRIVATISATION THREAT 
 
Privatisation is another issue now faced by the Belarussian chemical unions. The government has ordered the privatisation of the entire Belneftekhim Group before 19 March this year. The group's production ranges from chemicals through rubber and fertilisers to oil refining. 
 
The unprecedented speed of the privatisation suggests that the government intends to use the check-off dispute to exclude the unions from a say in the privatisation process. Recognising the danger, the Independent Union of Belarus has asked the ICEM to organise a series of workshops to prepare its local branches for an active role in the privatisation.

Belarus Potash Workers Lead Fight Against Anti-Union Decrees

Archive

Settle US Coal Strike, Global Union Tells Chevron

Unions Press Clinton To Aid Chernobyl Workers

Belarus: World's Unions Condemn Rights Violations

Nigerian Rights Abuses: Mobil Shareholders Seek Investment Review

Total Resumes Football Sales

ILO "Outrage" Over Nigerian Abuses

Total Stops Sale Of "Child Labour" Footballs

Unions Blow Whistle On Child Labour Footballs

Palestinian Living Standards Key, Israeli Union Leader Says

Belarus Potash Workers Lead Fight Against Anti-Union Decrees

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