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Danish trade unions have condemned the government's decision to force an end to the current nationwide industrial dispute. Special legislation is being rushed through the Danish parliament today. 
 
If, as seems likely, the measure gains a majority, it will become law at midnight tonight. After that time, the current strikes and lock-outs will become illegal. Tomorrow is a public holiday in Denmark, so for most of the workers involved, the back-to-work order would in effect apply from Monday. 
 
More than 200,000 workers in Danish manufacturing and process industries, and a similar number in the transport and building sectors, have been on strike since 27 April. Prominent among the unions involved are affiliates of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The back-to-work law is based on the mediation proposal from the public conciliator which workers voted to reject two weeks ago. From 27 April, the unions launched an indefinite strike across a wide range of industrial, transport and construction sectors. Employers broadened the dispute this Monday by locking out some 30,000 shop and supermarket staff and around 15,000 electricians. 
 
The mediators' proposal voted down by the workers two weeks ago added one extra day off to the Danish workers' existing five weeks&rsquo; annual holiday entitlement. The draft law also gives one extra day off for all workers who have at least nine months'service with their current employer, plus two more days off for workers who have children under 14 years of age (and a further day off for workers in this category from 1999 onwards). 
 
To finance these additional holiday entitlements, the increases in pensions contributions that were to have been paid by employers would be reduced by 0.4 per cent of the wages bill. The goverment would also cancel the special sick leave levy under which the employers have to pay 325 Danish kroner per employee to the state. 
 
The effect would be to reduce previously agreed pension improvements for workers. It would also mean that the ratio of employers' to employees' share in pension financing would shift slightly, to the disadvantage of the workers. So far, the principle has been that employers pay two-thirds of pension costs and employees one-third. 
 
The government intervention &quot;has really weakened the Danish negotiating model,&quot; commented the ICEM-affiliated general workers' union SiD. &quot;We had of course feared all along that the this dispute could end with a political intervention, due to the employers' intransigence. But even in our wildest imaginings, we had not dreamt of an outcome like this one. This is not what we launched a dispute to achieve.&quot; The Danish government was peddling &quot;falsely labelled goods,&quot; SiD insisted. The Danish people had not been told of the measure's full implications. The government intervention is &quot;an attack on freedom of negotiation and collective bargaining&quot; and could have serious consequences for Danish industrial relations, the union warned. 
 
SiD particularly criticises the new law's pension provisions as &quot;deeply unjust&quot;. While welcoming the increased holiday provisions, the union points out that many of its members will fail to qualify because they have seasonal jobs or frequent changes of employer. &quot;It is the weaker members of society who will be missing out on the extra free time granted to others.&quot; The same criticism applies to the extra time off for workers with children. Here, six months' prior service with the same employer is required. The union also says this extra time off will not be on full pay for some groups, &quot;which will come as a surprise to many people.&quot; 
 
&quot;It is deeply unsatisfactory that the government will not let the two sides themselves conclude negotiations, at a time when all the possibilities have not been exhausted,&quot; said Lillian Knudsen. She is the President of the ICEM-affiliated Danish women workers' union KAD. Knudsen particularly criticised the new law's pension provisions. &quot;We find it completely unacceptable that the government is obliging workers themselves to finance the solution.&quot; While welcoming the extra holiday entitlements, and particularly the special provisions for families with children, she noted that &quot;it's the State, and not the employers, that is footing the bill.&quot;

Danish Unions Condemn Government Intervention

The Danish government today said it will legislate to end a dispute that is threatening to bring the country to a standstill. 
 
As the nationwide industrial dispute entered its tenth day, the employers were today still refusing to bargain in good faith. In fact, they broadened and hardened the conflict this Monday by locking out some 30,000 shop and supermarket staff and around 15,000 electricians. 
 
Now, Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen says he will table legislation on Thursday to force an end to the dispute. If adopted, the law will take effect at midnight on Thursday. Rasmussen expects to have a solid parliamentary majority for the measure. 
 
More than 200,000 workers in Danish manufacturing and process industries, and a similar number in the transport and building sectors, have been on strike since 27 April. Prominent among the unions involved are affiliates of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Bargaining across a wide range of sectors broke down at the end of last month after union members voted to reject a mediated proposal. The Danish national trade union federation LO had been trying to get talks going again, but a brief meeting with the employers' federation DA yesterday produced no results and LO President Hans Jensen said no date had been set for further talks. 
 
Earlier yesterday, LO had turned down the employers' &quot;final offer&quot; of one day's extra holiday a year, plus one more for workers with children. The employers had insisted that all costs for the extra days off should be borne by the workers themselves, by cutting back on already agreed improvements in pension entitlements. 
 
&quot;No extra costs&quot; has become something of a battle cry for the Danish employers. But they are certainly not short of money, as witness Denmark's booming economy and the very healthy results posted by the main companies. 
 
&quot;We don't believe this was a serious offer,&quot; commented Poul Erik Skov Christensen, President of the ICEM-affiliated general workers' union SiD. &quot;It would be wholly unrealistic to think that our members would agree to pay for extra holidays themselves. There will have to be a significantly improved offer on holidays, in comparison to the mediated proposal that the members previously rejected.&quot; 
 
He was speaking before the Prime Minister's announcement. In fact, the new legislation is likely to go some way towards meeting the unions' demand for more time off, which has become the main focus of the dispute. LO had called for two extra days per year, plus two more for workers with children, but the DA flatly refused this compromise. 
 
Certainly, the dispute has hit home. But, without compromising the effectiveness of their action, unions have been carefully making case-by-case exemptions in a number of areas, including fuel supplies to emergency and social services, distribution of essential medicines and the provision of hospital cleaning and laundry services where these are clearly vital to the maintenance of hygiene. Sections of the conservative media have been trying to whip up hysteria about shortages, the Danish unions report, but in fact the exemption system has been working well. The unions also confirm that fodder is getting through to Denmark's farms. Some press reports had suggested that farm animals were starving. 
 
An SiD local office burnt to the ground on Saturday following an explosion. Police and fire service investigators said yesterday that they had not ruled out arson as the cause of the blaze. A criminal investigation has now been launched.

Danish Government Steps In As Employers Broaden National Dispute

Tomorrow, May Day, is the workers' day in most parts of the world. 
 
This year, the celebration takes on an added meaning. This is the fiftieth anniversary both of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of the International Labour Organisation's Convention No. 87. 
 
Adopted by the world's governments in 1948, the Universal Declaration specifically states that everyone has the right to form and join trade unions in order to protect their interests (Article 23.4). Adopted by the world's governments, employers and unions in the same year, ILO Convention 87 builds on that commitment by enshrining all the basic labour rights. The two are closely linked. The basic union rights set out by the ILO are specialised extensions of generally recognised human freedoms, such as freedom of association, freedom of assembly and freedom of expression. 
 
&quot;Union rights are human rights,&quot; commented Vic Thorpe, General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions. &quot;It is important that all governments and all employers should be fully signed up to the basic trade union rights and to the human freedoms that underlie them. For that reason, we strongly welcome and salute efforts by organisations such as the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and Amnesty International to get governments and the big global corporations to ratify these principles. The ICEM is keen to cooperate and network with all organisations that pursue this aim. 
 
&quot;But principles are not enough. They have to be put into practice. No amount of declarations can ever substitute for trade union strength on the ground.&quot; 
 
In fact, Thorpe said, violations of trade union rights are still more the rule than the exception. &quot;All over the world, the rights whose adoption we are celebrating this year are being trampled underfoot. And all too often, the world just looks on. In Nigeria, oilworkers' leaders Milton Dabibi and Frank Kokori and many other citizens are still being detained without charge or trial by the military regime. In Colombia, trade unionists go in constant fear for their lives as death squads continue to target them. In Australia, the government actually brought in a leading executive of mining multinational Rio Tinto to help draft anti-union legislation which has been condemned by ILO experts. These are just a few examples among so many.&quot; 
 
Ultimately, Thorpe insisted, only workers can defend worker rights in the workplace. &quot;Nationally and globally, we must engage industrial employers in dialogue on the day-to-day industrial application of those rights. We must do this persistently, from a position of strength. That is why trade unions' best contribution to the defence of union rights and wider human rights is to organise, organise, organise.&quot;

Union Rights Are Human Rights

As Canadian-based mining multinational Ivanhoe held its annual shareholders' meeting in Vancouver yesterday, unions urged it to end its joint venture with the Burmese military regime and withdraw its investments from Burma. Taking part in the union lobby were the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Burma has received international condemnation as one of the world's worst violators of human rights. Accusations against the military regime include the use of forced labour, child labour, trafficking in prostitution, and the imprisonment and torture of political dissidents. 
 
Ivanhoe's Monywa Copper Mine, located in Sagaing, is the largest foreign mining investment in Burma and has been linked to the mass conscription of forced labour as well as the severe environmental degradation of the surrounding area. According to the UN'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's power source was built using 3,000 - 5,000 forced labourers. 
 
While many multinational corporations have disinvested from Burma - including Texaco, Arco, PepsiCo, Eastman Kodak, Motorola, Best Western and most recently Marriott - the Monywa mine represents the largest ongoing Burmese investment of a Canadian-based corporation. 
 
The CLC Convention earlier this month resolved that &quot;the CLC and its affiliates respond to the ILO's call by pressuring corporations to cease their activities in Burma and by urging the Canadian government to impose full economic sanctions against Burma&quot;. 
 
&quot;We are telling the Canadian government that its program of limited sanctions isn't sufficient,&quot; said CLC President Ken Georgetti. &quot;Our members do not want Canadian corporations like Ivanhoe Mines given full sway to continue propping up Burma's brutal military regime. We believe that full economic sanctions on Burma are absolutely necessary until full democracy and trade union rights are restored.&quot; 
 
The joint call of the two labour federations is part of a global initiative of trade unions to restore democracy and respect for human rights in Burma. In November 2000, the ILO took the extraordinary measure of urging its members to &quot;review their relations with Burma&quot; and &quot;ensure that such relations do not perpetuate the system of forced or compulsory labour in that country.&quot; This has prompted an expanded effort among labour unions to urge foreign companies to withdraw from Burma. 
 
&quot;The ICEM and the global labour movement have made clear that we will not remain silent while multinational corporations prop up the Burmese dictatorship,&quot; said Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary. Higgs also noted the recent decision of a California Superior Court judge to allow a lawsuit against the American oil company Unocal to proceed to trial. The decision holds that Unocal may be held liable under the legal doctrine known as &quot;vicarious liability&quot; for forced labour and other abuses committed by its joint venture partner, the Burmese government, in the construction of the Yadana gas pipeline in southern Burma. 
 
&quot;Ivanhoe shareholders should take notice of the significant potential material liabilities facing Unocal for its alleged complicity with forced labour in Burma and take immediate measures to preserve shareholder value by discontinuing Ivanhoe's use of one of the world's worst human rights violators as a business partner,&quot; said Higgs. 
 
The Ivanhoe shareholders' meeting coincides with renewed hope that the global campaign for democracy and human rights in Burma is beginning to produce results. Burma democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was recently released after eighteen months' house arrest, and immediately called for a continuation of economic pressure on the Burmese regime. 
 
Union members joined together with Burmese refugees and religious and human rights activists in a demonstration yesterday outside the Ivanhoe shareholders' meeting in Vancouver. 
 
&quot;The struggle for human and workplace rights in Burma is a high priority for our union. Our members are protesting today to tell Ivanhoe that it is time for it to do the right thing and cut its ties with the repressive regime in Burma,&quot; said Brian Payne, President of ICEM Canadian affiliate the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP). 
 
&quot;The long overdue recent release of Burma democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is a positive sign, but the military junta has yet to show that it is genuinely changing,&quot; added Lawrence McBrearty, Canadian National Director of the ICEM-affiliated United Steelworkers of America (USWA). &quot;We will continue to stand with our brothers and sisters in Burma's beleaguered trade union and pro-democracy movements until full freedom without curbs or harassment is allowed.&quot; 
 
The ICEM is a global trade union federation uniting 20 million workers in over 400 affiliated unions in 110 countries. The CLC represents 2.3 million working Canadians and their families. It is the voice of Canada's labour movement, bringing together the majority of the country's national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial labour federations.

Pull Out Of Burma, World&#039;s Unions Tell Ivanhoe Mines

In a secret ballot, workers yesterday voted by 98 percent to reject a new agreement proposed by the management of Australia's Hunter Valley No. 1 mine. 
 
The mine is owned by Rio Tinto, the world's biggest mining multinational. Rio Tinto has been attempting to de-unionise its Australian mines. The multinational's strong anti-union stance in many parts of the world has made it a priority target for campaigning by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Yesterday's secret ballot was conducted by a local mayor. At a meeting, the Hunter Valley No. 1 miners analysed every aspect of the new agreement and found that, if they accepted it, they would each be worse off to the tune of 14,000 Australian dollars (about US$8,750) a year. 
 
Mineworkers also condemned Rio Tinto's performance assessments at the mine. With 192 jobs to be cut in the next couple of months, mineworkers accused the company of &quot;payback&quot; [revenge] in targeting union activists. The assessment was &quot;a sham&quot; commented Tony Maher, Vice-President of the ICEM-affiliated Australian mining and allied workers' union CFMEU. 
 
&quot;For example, we have one worker who is not only licensed to drive every piece of machinery at the mine but was so highly valued by the company that he was used to train others. He is also a qualified Mines Rescue worker. His performance was marked 'poor'. Another worker who has not has not lost a day in 20 years through injury, was also rated 'poor', requiring improvement in safety&quot;. 
 
Maher said the performance assessment was a Rio Tinto in-house project designed as a vendetta against union activists. &quot;It's got nothing to do with real performance. It's a get-square and an attempt to intimidate workers into voting in favour of the company's proposed new agreement when the Australian Electoral Council conducts a ballot at the mine from May 11-15.&quot; 
 
Yesterday's meeting unanimously supported a NO vote in the forthcoming ballot and the CFMEU is confident that Rio Tinto's offer will be firmly rejected.

Áustralian Miners Spurn Rio Tinto &#039;Offer&#039;

Unions worldwide have condemned the murder of human rights lawyer Eduardo Umana Mendoza in Colombia and are pressing for a full investigation of the crime. 
 
In a letter to Colombia&rsquo;s President Ernesto Samper, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) urged him to take effective measures to ensure that the murder will be fully and impartially investigated. &quot;We also demand that your Government urgently develop and apply efficient means of prevention and protection that will guarantee the legitimate defence of human rights in Colombia,&quot; the ICEM said. 
 
Dr. Umana, a prominent defender of trade unionists, indigenous communities and the families of &quot;disappeared&quot; people, was shot six times in the head by two men and a woman posing as TV journalists on Saturday. 
 
Over the last ten years, thousands of people, including at least 2,700 trade unionists, have been assassinated in Colombia by guerrillas, paramilitary groups, and contract killers hired by drug barons or landowners. 
 
Significantly, Dr. Umana was about to take on the legal defence of some of the 17 oil industry trade unionists now awaiting trial on vague accusations of links to terrorism. The charges are based on secret testimony by unidentified witnesses. The trade unionists, who are members of the oil workers&rsquo; Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera (USO), are to be tried in special courts under a system dubbed &quot;justicia sin rostro&quot;, faceless justice, because most of the witnesses will wear masks to hide their identity. 
 
As human rights organisations have pointed out, this procedure is open to obvious abuse. The ICEM again urged Samper to abolish the &quot;faceless justice&quot; system, to free the imprisoned oil workers immediately and to guarantee them a public and fair trial, with full provision of legal aid. 
 
In the last ten years, 83 workers at the state oil company Ecopetrol have been murdered. State-backed paramilitaries, supposed to protect public safety, have reportedly instigated violence in many areas, threatening oil workers and invading their living quarters. The paramilitaries and death squads have announced that one of their tasks is to prevent workers from joining the union and from carrying out their union tasks - in short, to get rid of the oil workers&rsquo; union USO. 
 
The ICEM urged Samper to &quot;take measures to ensure that the oil workers can exercise the rights to carry out their legitimate union tasks&quot;, as guaranteed in the Conventions of the UN&rsquo;s International Labour Organisation and in the Colombian Constitution. &quot;You must make sure that all civil and military authorities respect these rights,&quot; the ICEM insisted. &quot;In particular, we urge you to take measures to protect the life and integrity of USO President Hernando Hernandez who has faced serious threats.&quot; 
 
The ICEM pledged continuing support to the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and human rights organisations. It will also step up pressure on multinational oil companies operating in Colombia, such as BP (British Petroleum), to ensure that security forces are not used to intimidate workers. The ICEM is running a support programme in Colombia to reinforce national union structures in the oil, electricity and coal mining industries.

World Unions Condemn Colombian Assassination

Namibia should nationalise mines belonging to the Tsumeb corporation (TCL), the country's miners demanded today. Their call follows moves by holding company Gold Fields Namibia to put TCL into liquidation. 
 
The jobs of some 2,000 workers at TCL are now under threat - about a quarter of the workforce in Namibia's important mining industry. The company has been mining copper, lead, zinc, sulphur and other minerals in Namibia for the past 55 years. 
 
In a curt note to workers on Friday, manager J. B. Ayres announced that &quot;all assets, monies and liabilities of the company are frozen with immediate effect by the courts. The action affects all employees including management.&quot; A liquidator would now be &quot;responsible for the realisation of the company assets and the distribution of these funds. These actions are now out of the control of the management of this company.&quot; Ayres did, however, add that the workers' provident fund is &quot;intact&quot;. Workers' hostel services would continue &quot;until further notice&quot;. 
 
If TCL really is bankrupt, this is &quot;mainly due to mismanagement,&quot; commented Peter Naholo. He is General Secretary of the Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN). &quot;Since its inception,&quot; Naholo said, TCL has been &quot;run by apartheid managers&quot; who have been &quot;generally incompetent and corrupt.&quot; Condemning the company's failure to give advance warning to its workers and other stakeholders, Naholo called Ayres' note &quot;materially flawed, in that no court has as yet 'frozen' any assets.&quot; And the country's Minister of Mines and Energy, Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, said the lack of advance notice put TCL in breach of Namibia's Minerals Act. 
 
The MUN has repeatedly warned the Namibian government that TCL/Gold Fields is not a reliable investor. The union has faced a whole series of conflicts with the company, notably a strike over pay in 1996. &quot;Today the Government is expressing their shock,&quot; Naholo said. &quot;We must point out that the MUN is not shocked. We know what TCL is.&quot; 
 
The company is blaming the closure on the fall in world copper prices - and on the 1996 strike, a claim echoed in the mine and energy minister's statement. &quot;The strike resulted in a premature closure of the De Wet shaft at Tsumeb mine,&quot; the minister said, &quot;although mining from this shaft was scheduled to come to an end in 1997.&quot; 
 
This is a &quot;flagrant lie,&quot; Naholo retorts. &quot;De Wet shaft was closed in June 1996, two months prior to the strike. This is all the more reason to believe that TCL/Gold Fields has since 1996 had a perfectly planned hidden agenda for the abandonment of the mines in question.&quot; 
 
The MUN is determined to oppose the liquidation, and is demanding a commission of enquiry into TCL/Gold Fields' affairs. Naholo called on all other TCL/Gold Fields creditors to join the union's campaign. The Goldfields board of directors should be &quot;investigated in terms of the Companies Act for recklessly dealing with the company's affairs,&quot; he insisted. &quot;If found liable, they should be apprehended and locked up for sabotage of the Namibian economy.&quot; The company must not be allowed to &quot;abandon Namibia under the smokescreen of liquidation, thus leaving the people they have exploited to clean up the mess for them.&quot; 
 
Meanwhile, Naholo pointed out, TCL's abandonment of its three mines has provided a &quot;golden opportunity for the Government to nationalise and establish a sound and economically viable mining operation at the three 'people's mines'.&quot; 
 
TCL/Gold Fields' behaviour has also been condemned by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the MUN is affiliated. 
 
&quot;This is hit-and-run capitalism at its very worst,&quot; commented ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe. &quot;Through the ICEM, mining and allied workers worldwide will give every possible support to our Namibian colleagues in their just struggle.&quot;

Namibian Mine &quot;Bankruptcy&quot;: Union Demands Nationalisation

Now is the time for Exxon, Shell, BP and Mobil to get back to collective bargaining in Britain. So says the country's Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU). 
 
As the Labour government moves to reform British industrial law, the TGWU has stepped up its long-standing campaign to bring back union rights for Britain's onshore oil workers. 
 
Leading the drive is Fred Higgs, Vice-President of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Higgs is the National Officer for the oil industry at the TGWU, which is an ICEM affiliate. 
 
The four oil multinationals scrapped union recognition in their British process and distribution operations during the early 1990s, under the union-hostile Thatcher and Major governments. &quot;Ideological opportunism&quot; is what Higgs called the companies' behaviour in his recent statement to a key British parliamentary committee. He repeated his charges that the companies had pursued a &quot;collusive strategy&quot; on derecognition and had used intimidatory tactics to pressure workers into signing individual employment contracts, as opposed to collective agreements. 
 
The British parliament first heard Higgs' evidence backing these claims in 1994. He also took the union's case to Europe, where the European Parliament and the European Commission found that Britain had breached EU directives on employee representation rights. 
 
The present British government's labour law proposals should be published within the next few weeks. They are likely to include a legal requirement on companies to recognise unions that can demonstrate a certain level of support within the workplace. 
 
&quot;Whatever the criteria chosen, I am confident that we can demonstrate the workers' strong support for union recognition,&quot; Higgs stated. &quot;Despite the worst efforts of all four companies, we have been able to maintain our membership levels. In some places, our membership has actually increased since the companies tried to push us out.&quot; 
 
The oil majors should negotiate recognition agreements in Britain now, he urged, instead of waiting until the law forces them to do so. 
 
&quot;In Britain and worldwide,&quot; Higgs said, &quot;it is in the oil companies' own interests to work with us rather than against us.&quot;

Oil Companies Pressed On British Union Recognition

Canadian workers have emerged victorious from a six-month strike against cement multinational Lafarge. 
 
Members of the Communications, Energy &amp; Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) ended the dispute at the company's Bath, Ontario facility last Saturday when they ratified a new agreement by 77 per cent. They will return to work on 2 July. 
<img height="168" src="" width="250" alt="" />
photo: CEP 
The four-year deal includes gains for the workers in wages and pensions and an end to the employment of all strikebreakers hired during the dispute. Disagreements about overtime and subcontracting have also been resolved, with the company committing itself to hire 17 per cent more staff at the facility. 
 
&quot;The overtime issue has been resolved through a voluntary system,&quot; the local union's website states. &quot;The contracting out language has been reworked in a way that actually strengthens our job security. The company has committed to hire 11 more persons and given a commitment to a minimum level of union members. Not only do both parties benefit from this agreement, but there are now a few more jobs available to the general workforce.&quot; 
 
&quot;This is the best kind of union victory,&quot; said CEP Ontario Vice President Cec Makowski. &quot;Not only did we win on the wage front, but less hours means safer working conditions for these workers and more time with their families.&quot; 
 
Before the strike, workers were putting in 300 to 400 hours of overtime a year, and some were on call 24 hours a day. 
 
&quot;Other employers should take note of the priority our members and our union place on the hours of work issue,&quot; commented Doug Chisholm, local union president. &quot;This small group stood up against a huge multinational company and they won. 
 
&quot;I'm extremely proud of our members and our union which provided unwavering support throughout this difficult strike,&quot; he added. 
 
During the dispute, the CEP received solidarity from other unions, both in Canada and beyond. In the US, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers &amp; Helpers and the Paper Allied-Industrial, Chemical &amp; Energy Workers International Union, both of which represent Lafarge workers, mobilised in support of the CEP. So did British unions the GMB and the Transport &amp; General Workers' Union, which also have membership at Lafarge. 
 
Like the CEP, these unions are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

Canadian LaFarge Strikers Win

Led by Australian mining and allied workers' union the CFMEU, the protest marked a further escalation in the campaign by unions and others worldwide to instil some corporate ethics into Rio Tinto, the world's biggest mining company. 
 
The Melbourne demonstration was outside Rio Tinto's headquarters for Australia, where the company has one of its most extensive mining operations. Australia is also the scene of a major drive by Rio Tinto to push trade unions out of its mines and end collective bargaining. 
 
 
<img height="253" alt="" src="" width="380" />
&quot;Rio Tinto: Corporate Greed, Global Grief&quot; 
said a huge banner unfurled by demonstrators in the central business district of Melbourne, Australia, today.
The multinational's anti-union stance in many parts of the world has made it a priority target for a global trade union campaign coordinated by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The ICEM and its affiliated unions worldwide, including the CFMEU, are allying themselves with a wide range of campaigning organisations on environmental issues and human rights, notably worker rights and indigenous people's rights. Rio Tinto is currently under heavy fire on all these counts. 
 
One feature of the campaign will be parliamentary questions about Rio Tinto in a number of countries where it operates. Last week, 29 British parliamentarians signed up to a highly critical motion about Rio Tinto in the House of Commons (see ICEM UPDATE 24/1998). The company's global corporate headquarters is in London. 
 
&quot;Rio Tinto makes much of the fact that it is a global operator,&quot; CFMEU National Secretary John Sutton told the Melbourne demonstrators. &quot;Now it's finally being made to answer internationally for its actions, such as its aggressive anti-union campaign in Australia and overseas.&quot; 
 
Sutton said it is important for Rio Tinto's overseas operations to be exposed to parliamentary and public scrutiny in Australia, in order to counter the company's public relations machine. The company claimed an excellent worker health and safety record, he pointed out, but that was not the real story. He cited the compensation case brought against Rio Tinto in the UK courts by a former employee, who claims he contracted cancer because of inadequate safety provisions at Rio Tinto's Rossing uranium mine in Namibia. 
 
&quot;Few people know that Rio Tinto mined uranium in Namibia during the 1970s and 1980s in direct violation of UN resolutions,&quot; Sutton added. &quot;Those are the sorts of issues the questions and reports to governments will bring out. We believe that once people have a clearer understanding of the problems Rio Tinto has caused around the world there will be pressure on the company to change. 
 
&quot;It's time Rio Tinto adopted progressive and ethical policies,&quot; Sutton insisted. &quot;Rio Tinto must start working with, and not against, its employees, communities and the environment.&quot; 
 

&nbsp;
<hr />
&nbsp;
PROUD TO BE ANTI-UNION 
 
In its new annual report, now being distributed to shareholders, Rio Tinto writes: &quot;At our operations throughout the world, we respect the right of employees to choose for themselves whether or not they wish to be represented collectively.&quot; 
 
 

<img height="284" alt="" src="" width="346" />
 
But the pictures below tell a very different story. Broadcast on Australian television, they show a ceremony at the company's Hunter Valley No. 1 mine in Australia on 25 June last year. The overwhelming majority of the workers there were on strike over the company's refusal to conclude a collective agreement. So the company mined small amounts of coal by using white-collar staff plus just seven workers who had signed individual employment contracts. 
 
 

<img height="282" alt="" src="" width="353" />
 
At the ceremony, trophies were handed out celebrating the &quot;First Coal Mined at Hunter Valley No. 1 Mine by Non-Union Labour.&quot; 
 
Footage of this bizarre little rite is included in a new documentary on Rio Tinto, Naked Into The Jungle.

Rio Tinto: Australian Demo Launches New Global Protests

Archive

Danish Unions Condemn Government Intervention

Danish Government Steps In As Employers Broaden National Dispute

Union Rights Are Human Rights

Pull Out Of Burma, World's Unions Tell Ivanhoe Mines

Áustralian Miners Spurn Rio Tinto 'Offer'

World Unions Condemn Colombian Assassination

Namibian Mine "Bankruptcy": Union Demands Nationalisation

Oil Companies Pressed On British Union Recognition

Canadian LaFarge Strikers Win

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