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The ICEM North American affiliate, Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada, announced its intention to re-open sector-wide Eastern Canadian pulp and paper bargaining in efforts to stop the closure of mills and the loss of jobs. Meeting in Montreal on 5-6 December, local union leaders at Canada's largest paper company, AbitibiBowater, adopted the measure as part of an action plan to halt mill closures. 
The announcement by leaders of 35 local unions came in the wake of AbitibiBowater&rsquo;s plan to sack 1,000 paperworkers with the closure of four mills &ndash; in Dalhousie, New Brunswick, McKenzie, British Columbia, and Shawinigan and Donnacona, both in Quebec. The closures mean Canada has now lost 20,000 forest sector jobs in the past two to three years. 
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The proposal to enter talks early will be put to a conference of all pulp and paper local unions from Eastern Canada early in 2008. CEP then will be entering year four of a five-year contract covering 25,000 paperworkers in the eastern half of the country. 
 
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re taking the bull by the horns,&rdquo; stated CEP President Dave Coles. &ldquo;As a union, there are ways we can help cut costs that don&rsquo;t involve concessions, and we want to put them forward.&rdquo; The CEP president stressed that the union will not re-open contracts with the intent to cut wages or benefits. 
 
In 2004, Abitibi was the lead company for the CEP in pattern bargaining in Eastern Canada. The company's latest round of announced cuts occurs shortly after the Canadian company finalised its merger with US-based Bowater. 
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CEP President Dave Coles
&ldquo;We want to sit down face-to-face with AbitibiBowater to explore their closure announcements in detail,&quot; said Coles, adding that talks would centre on all possible alternative plans for the mills. He said early retirements and transition plans for the affected workers would be on the table. 
 
The CEP is also calling on AbitibiBowater and all major pulp and paper companies to join the union in convening a national forest industry summit to agree on urgent matters to support the industry. The union believes the federal government, led by Premier Stephen Harper, has turned a deaf ear to the crisis in the country's forest products industry, a crisis that has severely impacted tens of thousands of Canadians residing in rural areas.

CEP Proposes to Re-open Eastern Canada&#039;s Paper Talks to Halt Rampant Mill Shutdowns

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BHP Billiton, the world's largest combined energy and mining company, will file a legal appeal to avoid hiring contract workers to full-time, permanent jobs at its Escondida copper mining operations in Chile. That was the Australian company's response to a directive from the country's Ministry of Labour on 7 December that it is to directly employ 767 subcontractors at its large copper mining operation in northern Chile, in order to comply with a Law on Subcontracting. 
 
The directive, issued in a report, follows the notice that state-run mining company Codelco, the world's largest copper mining enterprise, must bring over 5,000 workers onto its permanent rolls for the same reason. Codelco utilises the services of some 30,000 subcontractors, compared to 15,000 permanent workers. 
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Furthers reports from the Ministry are expected on Xstrata and AngloAmerican. BHP Billiton wasted no time in saying it will challenge the directive, which, it says, will raise its full-time employment at Escondida by 25%. Escondida is 57.5% owned by BHP, while Rio Tinto holds a 30% stake, and a Japanese consortium holds 10%. 
 
Chile's Law on Subcontracting was passed in 2006 and took effect in January 2007. It sets limits on the number of staff that can be used on short-term jobs. The law changed the secondary responsibility of companies utilising contractors regarding labour responsibilities, giving them primary responsibility. It also created a process in which enterprises must register and establish a fund to meet wage costs and guarantee the supply of full-time workers in case of non-compliance. 
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The purpose of the law is to ensure compliance with existing Chilean labour law and to prevent unfair competition between companies on work conditions. In Chile, some 50% of enterprises were estimated to contract out part of their production, while 20.7% contracted out their main economic activity. Prior to the law taking effect, a full 35% of Chile's labour force was estimated not to have a direct contractual link with the primary enterprise. 
 
In Chile's copper industry, permanent staff earns three times more than contract workers, who oftentimes perform the same work. This issue caused a six-week strike in June and July 2007 by the 30,000 subcontractors of Codelco at its five Chilean divisions. 
 
The Labour Ministry's report on Xstrata and AngloAmerican, which each own 44% of Chile's third largest copper operation, Dona Ines de Collahuase, is expected to be released this week.

BHP Billiton Files Legal Challenge to Chile&#039;s Law on Subcontracting

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ICEM affiliate Chemical, Manufacturing and Connected Trades Employees&rsquo; Union (CMCTEU) has engaged in a global effort to block two pieces of government legislation coming soon to a vote in the National Assembly of the Indian Ocean island-nation. 
 
The two bills the Employments Relations Bill and the Employment Rights Bill. CMCTEU issued a statement saying the government is pressing the measures to a vote in this legislative session before extensive dialogue between the social partners can occur. They ask the ICEM to take this struggle to a global level by asking trade union affiliates to write letters to the Mauritius Minister of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment opposing the measures. 
 
That minister is Dr. Vasant Bunwaree and letters can go to <a href="mailto:vkbunwaree@mail.gov.mu">vkbunwaree@mail.gov.mu</a>. 
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The Employment Relations Bill has many shortcomings, namely an erosion of workers&rsquo; rights, a cumbersome strike certification process, and restrictions on jobless workers over unemployment pay and ability to regain employment. The legislation also decreases sick leave time and gives no collective trade union protection to workers in small enterprises. 
 
The proposed laws also contain no penalties for employers who unjustly fire workers. 
 
The ILO&rsquo;s International Labour Office has assessed both pieces of legislation. It said that social and labour policies enacted into law must be the result of extensive consultation and social dialogue. It also concluded that the draft statutes set forth no criteria on how the two will function together, and says the legislation as written is short on administrative monitoring compliance. The ILO was also critical of language in the proposed statutes, which, in many places, is not gender-neutral.

Mauritius Affiliate Seeks Halt to hasty Labour Reform Legislation

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Not only did ICEM Thai affiliate Paper and Printing Federation (PPFT) win the reinstatement of Thanet Jhanluechai at SIG Combibloc 11 days ago, it also won assurances from the New Zealand&rsquo;s Rank Group that contract and agency labour language in the collective agreement will be honoured. 
 
That language reads exactly as the ICEM&rsquo;s policy on contract labour in collective agreements: the trade union must be consulted prior to any decision to sub-contract work, or hire temporary workers. The language is contained in a 2005 collective pact inside the 420-work Rayong province paper plant, and Rank Group now has agreed to adhere to it. 
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SIG branch leaders of PPTF
&nbsp;Rank Group purchased SIG Combibloc from its Swiss owners last spring. In readying the mill for sale, the packaging plant&rsquo;s managing director eliminated 8-hour work days in favour of 12-hour shifts. This cost workers a portion of their pay and of their shift differential pay. The agreement that was struck on 6 December also included the Rank Group&rsquo;s sacking of the plant&rsquo;s managing director, an individual blamed by workers for bringing deteriorating work and productivity conditions. 
 
A tightly-held private equity company led by New Zealand&rsquo;s richest man, Graeme Hart, Rank Group has moved rapidly into the forest products sector since buying, and taking private, Carter Holt Harvey in 2006. Since, it has increased its industry portfolio by buying papers mills and plants throughout the world. The ICEM commends the global trade union support that lead to justice being restored at SIG Combibloc, and particularly salutes New Zealand trade unions Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and the National Distribution Union for their lead. 
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Senior managers from Auckland-based Rank Group came to Rayong in late November and early December to resolve the dispute. This happened after global pressure. They also accepted &ndash; and agreed to correct &ndash; unfair work rules and other workplace issues that have led to extremely low morale. The ICEM congratulates PPFT and the workers at SIG Local Union for their great victory. Read more on the reinstatement of Thanet Jhanluechai <a href="/en/?id=19&amp;doc=2510&amp;la=EN">here</a>.

Thai Paperworkers Win More Than Just Reinstatement of Workplace Leader

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The European Union&rsquo;s Council of Ministers, on 5 December, backed away from passing an EU Directive on Agency Workers. The Directive, if passed, would have entitled agency workers to the same pay, benefits, and conditions of work as full-time staff after a six-week period. 
 
The proposed Directive, which was first drafted in 2002, has been blocked now for three years, primarily by UK&rsquo;s Labour Party government. In the 5 December meeting of the EU Employment Council, the Portuguese presidency was ready to ballot member countries under the EU&rsquo;s qualified-majority voting system, but the vote did not occur due to consideration of other UK positions. Besides the UK, Germany, Ireland, and Malta were member nations opposed. France and Poland had made compromises to accept the Directive. 
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The Agency Workers&rsquo; Directive is sure to be brought up again in early 2008, when Slovenia takes the presidency of the EU. The UK government&rsquo;s position has been bolstered by British business groups, who insist on flexible, disposable workforces in the name of competitiveness. 
 
Generally across Europe, temporary or agency workers are paid less, receive less training, and are prone to a higher rate of workplace accidents. 
 
Labour unions were incensed by the Brown government&rsquo;s continuation of Tony Blair policies. In leading up to the vote, European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) Secretary General John Monks, a British citizen, spoke before the UK&rsquo;s House of Commons on the issue. &ldquo;Agency workers are getting a second-class deal. And you &ndash; our government &ndash; are defending that, the indefensible.&rdquo; 
 
Following the 5 December non-action by the EU, UK Trades Union Congress General Secretary Brendan Barber stated, &ldquo;This is a bad day for rights at work across Europe, but especially in the UK. Contrary to business scare-mongering, this directive would not stop agencies providing temporary staff to employers. It would make it more difficult to undercut wages and conditions, and help slow the growth of a two-tier workforce.&rdquo;

EU Ignores Equal Treatment for Agency Workers in Failure to Pass Directive

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The Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia has called on the new Kevin Rudd government in Australia to reverse John Howard&rsquo;s policies on the environment. In a report released on 6 December, CFMEU is calling on the government to devote more funding to new technologies aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. 
 
Specifically, the CFMEU is urging the Rudd government to take the global lead in promoting carbon capture and storage technology. The CFMEU also called on mining houses operating in Australia &ndash; BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and Xstrata &ndash; to also invest at least A$1-per-tonne of coal produced into new technologies for carbon capture. CFMEU National President Tony Maher said coal companies currently are only placing A$0.20-a-tonne into clean coal research. 
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CFMEU's Tony Maher
&ldquo;While some call for extreme responses like banning coal altogether,&rdquo; said Maher, &ldquo;the real challenge is to accept that developing nations, in particular India and China, will be reliant on coal for some time and we need to reduce the impact of this energy source on the environment.&rdquo; 
 
Maher was part of the official Australia government delegation to the UN&rsquo;s Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia. That delegation, in stark reversal to Howard&rsquo;s policies, announced to a panel on 5 December in Bali that it supports a Kyoto protocol measure for Australia, calling for carbon emissions curtailment of 25-40% by the year 2020. 
 
&ldquo;Making carbon capture and storage a reality for our future is the brave step that Australia must take as it embarks as a global leader on climate change,&rdquo; said Maher on release of the CFMEU report. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why Australian coal miners have embraced the Kyoto process,&rdquo; he added, stating that the world&rsquo;s major coal producers ought to be investing at least A$1-per-tonne on clean technologies.

Australia’s CFMEU Calls for Cleaner Measures to Reduce Carbon Emissions

10 December 2007 
Honourable Ellen Johnson Sirleaf 
President of the Democratic Republic of Liberia 
The Executive Mansion 
PO Box 9001 
Capitol Hill 
Monrovia, County of Monteserrado 
LIBERIA 
 
Dear President Sirleaf: 
 
I write in the wake of worker unrest at the Firestone Rubber Plantation in Harbel, Liberia. I also write on behalf of the ICEM&rsquo;s global family of trade unions, calling on you to expedite the certification process for one of those affiliated trade unions, the Firestone Agriculture Workers&rsquo; Union of Liberia (FAWUL). 
 
Last week&rsquo;s flare up of turbulence was unfortunate. However, we have been assured by leadership of FAWUL that they did all they could to get workers not to take strike action. We now understand that Liberian police have rounded up and arrested several workers, who are charged with instigating the strike and the subsequent actions. We ask that amnesty be granted them. 
 
We are convinced that a normalised work atmosphere, as well as a peaceful labor-management relationship is obtainable at Firestone Rubber Plantation if the proper trade union is registered, and that this union be fully allowed to conduct its lawful trade union activities in representing the Firestone Plantation workers. 
In the name of Free Trade Unions worldwide, we call on you to use your influence inside the Liberian government to recognise the legitimacy of the Firestone Agriculture Workers&rsquo; Union. We insist that your government certify the elected leaders of FAWUL, and ensure that local management at the Firestone Plantation engages in full and meaningful collective negotiations with this union. Last week&rsquo;s unfortunate strike in Harbel can only be blamed on the frustration of workers, who have been denied their legitimate voice on workplace matters for too many months now. 
Your attention and action on this above matter is urgently needed. Please, if there is any way the ICEM can assist in bringing reconciliation to the parties in this matter, do not hesitate to contact me. 
Sincerely, 
 
Manfred Warda 
General Secretary

ICEM Letter to President Sirleaf of Liberia Over Firestone Plantation Dispute

The 20-million-member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) has called on Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to expedite union certification of trade union, FAWUL, as workers&rsquo; representative at Firestone Rubber Plantation. The ICEM also urges calm to rubber workers in Harbel, Liberia, who are rightly frustrated by delays of government jurisprudence in granting them what they have democratically, and fairly, won. 

The ICEM also calls for amnesty to arrested workers from Firestone, who are alleged to be involved in spontaneous strike actions at the plantation last week.
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FAWUL is the Firestone Agriculture Workers&rsquo; Union of Liberia, a new affiliate to the ICEM, and the rightful representative for 4,700 Firestone Plantation workers. In an election marking the first time in 85 years that Firestone workers were not impeded from voting for the trade union of their choice, FAWUL won a sizeable majority of votes. Liberia&rsquo;s Labor Ministry supervised the election and impaneled a special elections committee to monitor balloting. 

&ldquo;In the name of Free Trade Unions worldwide, we call on you to use your influence inside the Liberian government to recognise the legitimacy of the Firestone Agriculture Workers&rsquo; Union,&rdquo; wrote ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We insist that your government certify the elected leaders of FAWUL, and ensure that local management at the Firestone Plantation engages in full and meaningful collective negotiations with this union. Last week&rsquo;s unfortunate strike in Harbel can only be blamed on the frustration of workers, who have been denied their legitimate voice on workplace matters for too many months now.&rdquo; 

The ICEM is responding to a spontaneous strike that started on Tuesday, 4 December, one which turned unruly over the next two days in Harbel. Injuries occurred to workers when military police of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the Liberia National Police fired shots in the air on 6 December. A day later, Liberian police arrested 12 workers, including two leaders of FAWUL. The ICEM emphasized in the letter to President Sirleaf that leadership of FAWUL had urged workers to use only peaceful dissent in meeting both governmental delays to union certification, as well as Firestone management&rsquo;s refusal to deal with the new union. 

On 7 July 2007, workers overwhelmingly voted for FAWUL and its leadership team over a longstanding union that had extracted dues from workers, with Firestone&rsquo;s complicity, but failed to provide representation. This rival organisation, which had been in place for decades, and Firestone managers in Liberia are now engaged in futile legal actions in order to nullify the election. 

The Firestone Rubber Plantation in Liberia, owned by Bridgestone Corp. of Japan, is a million-acre reserve in the West African country that has become notorious for low pay and abuse of worker, including child labour practices. 
 
The ICEM is a Global Union Federation consisting of over 400 trade unions in some&nbsp;125 countries. It covers workers in the oil, gas, chemicals, mining, and processed industry sectors, which includes rubber, paper, and the manufacture of building materials.
The ICEM letter to Liberian president Sirleaf can be found <a href="/en/?id=20&amp;doc=2512&amp;la=EN">here</a>.

ICEM Calls on Liberia to Recognise Correct Trade Union at Firestone Rubber Plantation

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A strike deadline in Nigeria has been extended through this week in order that talks can continue between ICEM&rsquo;s two oil and gas union affiliates &ndash; NUPENG and PENGASSAN &ndash; and the Ministers of Labour and Petroleum on the urgent need to guarantee security and safety for workers and their families in the Niger Delta. 
 
A deadline by the unions to pull their workers out of Niger Delta oil and gas installations was due to expire today. But on Friday, 6 February, after a meeting with Rivers States Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the unions agreed to more talks this week. Leaders of the two unions will meet in Abuja beginning today with Minister of Work and Productivity Adetokunbo Olyukayode and Minister of Petroleum H. Odein Ajumogobia on viable solutions to the security situation. 
 
Port Harcourt, other parts of Rivers State, as well as neighbouring Niger Delta states have been hit by a rash of kidnappings against family members of PENGASSAN and NUPENG members in the past few weeks. Armed groups are calling for ransoms of up to US$100,000 after grabbing at gunpoint innocent family members of oil and gas workers. 
 
Another incident occurred Friday, 6 February. An ambush at a Shell Petroleum Development Corp. (SPDC) gas plant in Utorogun, Delta State, resulted in three militants being killed. First reports cite that no workers were harmed, although that has not always been the case in such attacks. 
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Earlier in the week, a Nigerian worker of Agip, a subsidiary of Italian ENI, was kidnapped. He was released without the company acknowledging whether or not a ransom was paid. On 29 January, the 11-year-old daughter of a PENGASSAN member, SPDC employee Samuel Awolesun, was murdered when she and her nine-year-old brother were kidnapped on their way to school. The young girl was shot while resisting the kidnap. 
 
In a PENGASSAN communiqu&eacute; of 6 February, the union announced the boy had been released last week. 
 
PENGASSAN and NUPENG count 12 kidnappings of oil and gas staff, their spouses, or family members since 24 January in Port Harcourt alone. Reports say that there have been at least ten attacks on vessels in waters off the Niger Delta since the first of the year. 
 
&ldquo;The insecurity in the delta has taken a new dimension,&rdquo; NUPENG National President Peter Akpatason told the ICEM. &ldquo;The government is not doing enough to protect staff and their families and this now has become a very serious industrial relations matter.&rdquo; 
 
PENGASSAN General Secretary Bayo Olowoshile said it is up to the government and state-run petroleum companies to prove why &ldquo;our services should not be withdrawn from all upstream facilities until security is improved in the region.&rdquo; 
 
In the joint announcement Friday to all NUPENG and PENGASSAN zonal chairmen and branches, in which a new strike deadline was set for 13 February, the unions said, &ldquo;We wish to inform (all workers) to await further directives as we engage the Federal and Rivers State Governments at this trying moment.&rdquo; 
 
Separately, the unions are also pressing the government and oil companies to address gaps in pay, working conditions, and social welfare benefits for casual workers and workers on fixed-term contracts. They are also building a case for better empowerment and employment opportunities for Nigerian nationals in the oil and gas industry, as well as support for liberalisation in the downstream sector if the existing private-sector employers commit to investments.

PENGASSAN, NUPENG Give Government Week to Rectify Recent Rash of Niger Delta Kidnappings

Contract and Agency Labour Newsletter

Archive

CEP Proposes to Re-open Eastern Canada's Paper Talks to Halt Rampant Mill Shutdowns

BHP Billiton Files Legal Challenge to Chile's Law on Subcontracting

Mauritius Affiliate Seeks Halt to hasty Labour Reform Legislation

Thai Paperworkers Win More Than Just Reinstatement of Workplace Leader

EU Ignores Equal Treatment for Agency Workers in Failure to Pass Directive

Australia’s CFMEU Calls for Cleaner Measures to Reduce Carbon Emissions

ICEM Letter to President Sirleaf of Liberia Over Firestone Plantation Dispute

ICEM Calls on Liberia to Recognise Correct Trade Union at Firestone Rubber Plantation

PENGASSAN, NUPENG Give Government Week to Rectify Recent Rash of Niger Delta Kidnappings

Contract and Agency Labour Newsletter

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