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Two strikes in the Colombian coal mining sector broke out recently, giving 3,000 miners of unaffiliated Sintramienerg&eacute;tica a loud voice to express disapproval over working conditions in this resource-rich sector of the South American country. 
A strike by 1,000 miners broke out at Swiss-owned Glencore International&rsquo;s Carbones La Jagua operations in Jagua de Ibirico, Cesar state, on 17 May, and one numbering 2,000 miners started on 22 May at US-based Drummond Coal&rsquo;s LaLoma mines in Cesar, and spread to the company&rsquo;s transport and export terminal operations in Cienaga and Santa Marta. 
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The Drummond strike centers on subcontractors. The privately-held US company refuses to extend collective bargaining rights to thousands of contract workers, mostly at the transport and terminal sites. Sintramienerg&eacute;tica is insisting for these jobs to be made permanent, with full social rights as well as the necessary health care benefits both on and off the job. 
 
Wages are also a major issue with both companies, since coal&rsquo;s high prices and the rich value of Colombian&rsquo;s high-grade resource in America and Europe has left miners short-changed. Miners&rsquo; demands also include significant investment, particularly by Glencore, on environmental projects, and for both companies to begin providing medical assistance to communities that have been adversely affected by the mining enterprises. 
 
Columbia&rsquo;s national labour center, Central Unitaria de Trabajores (CUT), has warned that company security units have made the strike scenes extremely volatile, and has called for constructive dialogue from both the national government and the two companies. CUT, saying the two strikes are lawful, said the companies refused to find solutions to the union&rsquo;s demands over the past two months, and that the demands have the overwhelming support of the miners. 
Glencore recently sold its 33% share in another rich coal mining and export operation in eastern Colombia, Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n, to Xstrata, a global mining house in which Glencore owns a 15% stake.

Colombia’s Coal Industry Hit with Two Strikes

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Baltic trade union solidarity was at its best last week when the Lithuanian Confederation of Trade Unions picketed and presented a formal letter of protest to the Estonian embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania. At the same time, on 25 May, Estonian trade union federations EAKL and TALO were demonstrating in the Estonian capital of Tallinn. 
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The joint protest is over the Estonian government&rsquo;s proposed Employees&rsquo; Representatives Act, put forward by the Social Affairs Ministry. If passed into law, the measure would exclude legitimate trade union representatives from information and consultation procedures inside worksites, as well as give employers the leverage to sack trade union delegates. 
 
EAKL Chairman Harri Taliga said the proposed legislation was shaped only with the narrow interests of employers in mind. The ICEM has written to Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip to express concern with the bill, specifically citing it with violating ILO Conventions 98 and 135, as well as a European Union directive on trade union rights.

Lithuanian Labour Protests Estonia’s Anti-Union Legislation

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A five-day glass plant strike in Bulgaria by ICEM affiliate National Federation of Chemical Workers of Podkrepa ended 19 May. Some 700 workers, the majority of them members of the union, won a 17% increase in their total financial package, including a 10% raise in their basic salary. 
 
The strike action occurred at Turkish-owned Sisecam&rsquo;s Trakya Glass Bulgaria (Shishejam), a new facility that only went into production in February 2006 in the town of Targovishte. The Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union had conducted a one-hour protest outside the factory on 8 May over local management&rsquo;s refusal to address several issues. 
The flat-glass plant is the second of three plants that Sisecam has opened recently in Targovishte. A household glass plant opened for production in August 2005, while a potassium-glass plant and mirror operation will open in the northern Bulgarian town late in 2006.

Glass Strike Ends in Bulgaria with Wage Gains

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ICEM Turkish affiliate Petrol-Īş&rsquo;s efforts to block, through several lawsuits, the 51% sale of state-owned oil refiner Turkiye Petro Rafinerisi AS (T&Uuml;PRAS) produced another court victory on 23 May. 
The Ankara Administrative Court cancelled sale of the 14.76% minority stake to Israeli investor Sami Ofer on the grounds that the sale did not benefit the &ldquo;public good.&rdquo; Ofer&rsquo;s bid of US$446 million last year for a minority stake in T&Uuml;PRAS had ballooned into a potential US$1.2 billion investment due to the revaluation of the state company. 
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On 2 February 2006, a preliminary ruling by the Council of State judiciary panel blocked the controlling stake in a privatised T&Uuml;PRAS when it ruled against the purchase by a consortium made up of Turkey&rsquo;s Koc Holdings and Royal Dutch Shell. That ruling was issued on the basis that privatisation laws had not been adhered to. 
The ruling, however, was vacated when no further court action occurred by a 29 March deadline. Petrol- Īş will now challenge this privatisation matter before the General Council of Administrative Courts. 
 
The union will also continue its public campaign against the sale of T&Uuml;PRAS, and likely will engage in further industrial actions at the company&rsquo;s four refineries and petrochemical plant. Petrol- Īş has also made application on the matter before the European Court of Human Rights.

Petrol-Īş Wins Yet Another Court Round Involving TÜPRAS Privatisation

Krasimir Krastev 
President 
National Labour Federation of Chemistry and Industry 
1, Macedonia Square 
Sofia 1000 
BULGARIA 
 
Brussels, 24 May 2006 
 
 
Dear Brother Krasimir, 
 
The 20-million-member ICEM has learned of your Trade Union&rsquo;s participation in a national demonstration in Bulgaria on 30 May 2006. 
 
We understand this protest to be over lack of responsible dialogue on the part of the government of Bulgaria and employers to address the real income needs of Bulgarians. We also understand the protest to be over prohibitions that still prevent workers to engage in strikes, a constitutional right in Bulgaria, and also limitations to all citizens of Bulgaria of health care, energy and transport services, and telecommunications. 
 
On behalf of our 389 Trade Union affiliates in 122 countries, the ICEM fully endorses and supports this protest and national demonstration on 30 May. We also encourage workers across all of Bulgaria to stand with the Trade Unions of your country on this day of meaningful assembly to ensure real increases in wage levels are met, as well as workers&rsquo; rights and heightened living standards are realized. 
 
As always, the ICEM stands ready to assist your Trade Union in any way possible to meet its important agenda on behalf of Bulgarian workers. 
 
Fraternally, 
 
Fred Higgs 
General Secretary

ICEM support letter National Labour Federation of Chemistry and Industry

The 20-million-member ICEM, the Global Union Federation (GUF) representing workers in the chemical, energy, mining and other industrial sectors, gives full support to the general strike in South Africa tomorrow, 18 May, called by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and some 21 trade unions there. 
 
The one-day strike, part of COSATU&rsquo;s &ldquo;Jobs and Poverty&rdquo; Campaign, is in protest at employers&rsquo; continuous retrenchment of workers and failure to create jobs, as well as a demand for government intervention in scaling back a national jobless rate that is now at 40%. 
 
&ldquo;Trade unions in South Africa are justifiably angry over high unemployment, stagnant wages, and increasing use by employers of casual and agency labour,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &ldquo;We fully support the decision by workers to use this day to make a strong statement.&rdquo; 
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At the forefront of the general strike will be trade union members of the ICEM-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), and the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood &amp; Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU). 
 
Striking workers will protest in several towns and cities in South Africa tomorrow, with marches scheduled to converge on selective industrial sites, offices of chambers of business organisations, and on governmental buildings.

Strike Warranted: South Africa’s 40% Jobless Rate Unacceptable

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Following results of German Works Council elections this spring, ICEM affiliate IGBCE has raised its representation voice inside companies to 85%. That is 5% better than results reflected in the last overall elections in 2002. 
 
IGBCE Governing Board Member Michael Vassiliadis termed the new number &ldquo;an outstanding result&rdquo; and a &ldquo;clear signal&rdquo; of worker confidence in Germany&rsquo;s most diverse industrial union. 
 
&ldquo;Under difficult conditions, we continue to add,&rdquo; said Vassiliadis. IGBCE has over one million members in Germany, and the union, through its worker representatives, has strong voice on some 3,700 Works Councils.

IGBCE Gains Strength on German Works Councils

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Tuesday, 7 February, will mark a full year that US members of United Steelworkers (USW) in Cincinnati, Ohio have been on strike against Cognis, a German chemicals company. 
USW Local 14340 will observe the anniversary by placing further attention on Cognis and its joint-venture partner who are operating the plant at great environmental risk, and with known health and safety deficiencies. 
Workers struck because Cognis would not agree to union recognition through a &ldquo;successorship&rdquo; clause in the labour agreement when Cognis and Malaysian Golden Hope Plantations formed a joint venture to run the oleochemicals division of the plant. The company is now refusing to accept strikers back to work even if the strike is ended. 
In a letter to Cognis CEO Antonio Trusi Oliva, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs called this &ldquo;unacceptable&rdquo; and urged him to use his &ldquo;influence inside this new enterprise to assure that a settlement to this strike will include jobs for all USW union members who wish to return to work.&rdquo;

USW Members in Ohio Seek Justice from Chemicals Producer

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In New Zealand, 58 members of&nbsp;Engineering, Printing &amp; Manufacturing Union (EPMU) were suddenly locked out on 3 February by Top Energy, a community-owned electricity distributor. The linemen were seeking EPMU&rsquo;s standard 5% wage hike, but have been met by unrealistic expectations from managers such as a 45-hour work-week without overtime. 
&ldquo;We have been negotiating for nearly six months, and have agreed to look at modernising the collective agreement, but we will not accept cuts to pay and conditions in an industry that's already relatively poorly paid and facing a severe labour shortage,&rdquo; stated EPMU President Andrew Little to the New Zealand Press. 
The company supplies power to customers in New Zealand&rsquo;s North Island from Whangarei to the North Cape.

Lockout at Electrical Distributor in New Zealand

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ExxonMobil is being pressured to announce to either reopen its Mobil Oil Australia refinery at Port Stanvac, or face a costly environmental clean-up bill. Mobil Australia, wholly-owned by the US supermajor, has until July 2006 to announce plans for the refinery, which was closed in mid-2003 with the loss of 400 jobs. 
A South Australia state parliamentary inquiry recently heard from contractors of Mobil Australia who said burying asbestos waste and other toxic chemicals on both land and sea was commonplace at the refinery in the suburbs of South Adelaide from the 1970s to the 1990s. 
A former health representative at the refinery said 3,000 people had been exposed to asbestos, and added, &ldquo;I saw things which you know are not right&hellip;if you say anything, you are out of a job.&rdquo; 
Since ExxonMobil&rsquo;s decision to mothball the Port Stanvac refinery in 2003, Australia has become a net importer of refined petroleum products.

ExxonMobil Pushed for Decision on Closed Australian Refinery

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