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Some 200 workers at a paper mill and converter owned by Smurfit Kappa Packaging in Argentina are on strike over the company&rsquo;s failure to pay a scheduled wage increase. The strike is at the company&rsquo;s mill and converting operations in Bernal and Espora. 
 
The workers, represented by a union affiliated to ICEM affiliate Federaci&oacute;n de Obreros y Empleados de la Industria del Papel, Cart&oacute;n y Qu&iacute;micos, struck because a 12% pay increase that was won in a long struggle after numerous social dialogue sessions with Smurfit has never been paid. 
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The company now is hiding behind the national work agreement in Argentina for the paper sector, and refuses to honour past commitments. Blas Juan Alari, Secretary General for Federaci&oacute;n del Papel, told the ICEM that the early promises made to workers are an acquired right, and that workers are refusing to bend to the pressure by the company.

Argentine Paperworkers Strike Smurfit Kappa over Non-Payment of Salary Agreement

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The steering committee of ICEM&rsquo;s Bridgestone Network met in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26-27 June, and resolved to prepare a comprehensive health and safety declaration at local plants, with support and cooperation from managers, for presentation at next year&rsquo;s conference. 
 
ICEM trade union affiliates from Brazil, Japan, South Africa and the US are represented on the steering committee, and Gomurengo, the Japanese Rubber Workers&rsquo; Union Confederation, chairs the network. 
This sixth meeting of the steering committee heard about the economic situations in each country, received reports on tyre sector activity, and reviewed industrial policies of the Japanese company within the different plants. 
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ICEM's Michael Wolters
ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Sector Officer Michael Wolters presented the main report on current developments inside the rubber industry, as well as on major technical innovations in tyre manufacture. Wolters also presented, and the steering committee, discussed a recent UN report stemming from an investigation on working and living conditions at a Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia.

ICEM’s Bridgestone Network Meets

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The Peruvian government has stipulated a wage and bonus, thus ending a strike by a union of FNTMMSP, ICEM&rsquo;s mining and metals affiliate in Peru. The nine-day shut down of the country&rsquo;s only iron ore operation forced the government to impose terms on Shougang Hierro Peru SA, which is wholly-owned by the Chinese government through its Shoulda Iron and Steel Group. 
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The government ordered a pay increase of more than half of what the union was seeking, and also imposed a one-time bonus. Shoungang&rsquo;s 800 miners had earned about US$13-per-day, while the average mining wage in Peru is $33-per-day. The imposed settlement for this year amounts to an 8% salary increase, and a bonus payment that exceeds US$300. 
 
The Chinese state-run company argued during talks that free water and electricity provided to iron ore miners offset the difference in pay schemes with other mining companies operating in Peru. Under Peru&rsquo;s labour law, the regional labour agency can intervene once a work stoppage has been declared legal. The strike lasted from 19-28 June.

Peru’s Government Imposes Wage Deal to Settle Iron Ore Strike

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An eight-week long mining and copper smelting dispute in Poland that included a 28 June threat to strike was resolved last week. Managers of state-owned KGHM Polska Miedz SA, a giant copper and silver conglomerate, agreed to a performance-based bonus plan tied to the company&rsquo;s handsome profits for the first five months of 2006. 
 
Direct pressure on Polish ministry officials, as well on as the enterprise&rsquo;s supervisory board, produced the bonus, which came close to the month&rsquo;s salary that unions operating inside KGHM companies were seeking. The nine unions, all operating under the umbrella Trade Union of Copper Industry Employees (ZZPPM), together with a smaller grouping, ZZPP, won a bonus of 90% of the average monthly salary for the 17,000 KGHM workers. The bonus will be awarded this month. 
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The unions held a joint industrial action meeting and referendum from 28-30 June, which included a 95% strike vote, and on 30 June, thousands of KGHM workers took to the streets with an angry protest march on Poland&rsquo;s Finance Ministry. ZZPPM and ZZPP demands also include a tightening of the political turn-over plaguing KGHM&rsquo;s supervisory board, a fact playing a negative influence on the company&rsquo;s performance. The unions are also seeking more funds for the company&rsquo;s social fund. 
 
KGHM has benefited from high prices of copper on the international market, and saw a net earnings result of &euro;370.5 million for the first five months of 2006. 
 
Coal miners in Poland, represented by ICEM affiliate Miners&rsquo; and Energy Workers Union of Solidarnosc, among other unions, also won a bonus award in late May. That payout was based on 2005 profits from a number of state-owned coal companies, including Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa, Kompania Weglowa, and Katowicki Holding Weglowy. Part of the government&rsquo;s deal in awarding the bonus is to establish uniform collective agreements in Poland&rsquo;s hard coal sector.

Polish Copper Workers Win Bonuses Based on State Company’s Profits

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The strike by ICEM oil and gas affiliate NOPEF against oil service companies on Norway&rsquo;s continental shelf has intensified. The Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF), representing the companies, and NOPEF have not met since the start of the strike on 21 June. 
 
The selective strikes against a handful of oil service firms, including Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Weatherford and Oceaneering, has had serious impact on drilling, exploration and well maintenance for a number of companies. Statoil, ConocoPhillips, and Norske Hydro have been seriously impacted to date, with Statoil forced to halt drilling at its Sn&oslash;hvit and Kristin fields. 
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If the strike lasts too much longer, drilling and development efforts undertaken by ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell will be impacted. OLF said the strike has disrupted production of 37,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day. 
 
The strike was caused when the oil service providers refused to harmonise its national collective agreement in Norway with other national contracts in the oil sector. That has been the central demand by NOPEF, which seeks to win for workers regular weekly schedules and such items as compensation for waiting time, something that is common in other oil sector agreements.

NOPEF Strike against Oil Service Providers Continues in Norway

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Oil fields workers&rsquo; in southern Chad launched a three-day strike against Esso-Tchad, US-based ExxonMobil&rsquo;s operating unit there, over wage discrimination and neglect over implementation of a career development plan by the oil and gas supermajor. Oil workers in Chad are also upset that the money produced through their labours is not reflected in their socioeconomic standing. 
 
The strike by over 400 workers lasted from 4 to 6 July in the Doba oil fields of Kome, Miandoum, and Bolobo. Oil workers served notice that future strikes would occur, possibly production of the 200,000 barrel-a-day output sent through the three-year-old Chad-Cameroon pipeline, unless workers&rsquo; demands are met. The strike was caused by Esso-Tchad when it placed an inferior pay offer before the workers a day before the walkout began. 
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Management offered a pay increase of only 7.5%, while workers are seeking 25% in order to bring pay levels closer to oil workers on the transit side of the upstream development in Cameroon. Chad&rsquo;s national labour centre, Union des Syndicats de Tchad (UST), is assisting oil workers in talks. 
 
In March, the union representing the workers issued demands in the form of a statement that called out the unequal pay practices between oil workers in Chad and Cameroon, and charged that a phantom &ldquo;career progression plan had never been seen by the Chadian personnel, who continue to receive a salary that is not equivalent to the services rendered or the socioeconomic situation.&rdquo; Esso-Tchad made no response to those demands. 
 
The Doba fields, connected to the Cameroon port of Kribi by a 1,063-kilometre pipeline, belong to a consortium of oil companies, with ExxonMobil holding 40%, Malaysia&rsquo;s Petronas 35%, and US-based Chevron a 25% stake. The World Bank-funded development project became mired in controversy when, in January 2006, Chad&rsquo;s government changed the bank&rsquo;s financial arrangements, and diverted monies away from poverty relief and social programmes to counter civil strife, leading to a mass of refugees entering eastern Chad from the Sudan. 
 
With a stalemate brought by the World Bank&rsquo;s dispute with Chad&rsquo;s government, ExxonMobil decided to stop royalty payments to the government of Chad, worth some US$20 million per month, which further choked resources in one of the world&rsquo;s poorest countries. 
 
The World Bank-sponsored Chad-Cameroon pipeline has been plagued by other labour and human rights problems as well. In September 2005, Chad&rsquo;s national gendarmerie broke up peaceful protests by contract workers who had been denied overtime pay while employed by Chad-Cameroon Constructors, the oil companies&rsquo; consortium building the pipeline. The police action left three dead and three seriously injured.

Chad’s Oil Workers Target ExxonMobil for Strike Action

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French materials producer Imerys has reneged on a commitment made two years ago to British workers. The promise, made in 2004 when the company moved some jobs from Southwest England to Brazil, guaranteed that 800 other jobs would remain. 
 
However, in early July, Imerys dropped a proposed restructuring plan on all former English China Clay mining and manufacturing operations, which Imerys bought in 1999, near Cornwall and Devon, telling the communities that all 800 jobs would be gone and production will move to Brazil by 2008. With Imerys being the region&rsquo;s largest private employer, such a scenario would be fatal to the economic lifeblood of the Southwest. The ICEM will again join with UK&rsquo;s Transport &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union (TGWU), and two other UK trade unions representing Imerys workers, to resist the company&rsquo;s destructive restructuring plan. 
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Early in 2005, Cornwall and Devon workers, together with their unions, fiercely resisted Imerys insistence on closing the final pension scheme and downgrading benefit levels for existing workers and retirees. That fight was waged to retain the spending power that thousands of workers and retirees had rightfully earned due to years on the job. Now the fight is survival. 
 
Since the proposed plan was uncovered just a week ago, TGWU has already organised a general stewards&rsquo; meeting and demanded from Imerys an immediate and preliminary meeting. In addition, an MP from the area, Matthew Taylor, representing Truro and St Austell, has scheduled an emergency debate on the economic consequences to the region in Parliament tomorrow, 11 July.

French-based Imerys Drops Bombshell on Southwest England

A book authored in part by Paul Lootens,&nbsp;FGTB's&nbsp;Federal Secretary in Belgium, reveals the comprehensive legal&nbsp;maneuvering following the nation's worst mining accident. In August 1956, near the&nbsp;Belgian city of Charleroi, 262 coalminers perished due to equipment failure and subsequent chain of events.
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FGTB's Paul Lootens&nbsp;&nbsp;
The aftermath of this tragic&nbsp;worksite story is depicted in a book entitled Tutti Cadaveri: The Trial of the Catastrophe at the Bois du Cazier in Marcinelle by&nbsp;Lootens, also an ICEM vice president,&nbsp;and historians Marie-Louise De Roeck and Julie Urbain. The book&rsquo;s title, Tutti Cadaveri, comes from the Italian rescuer who, after surfacing from the mine, said, tragically, &ldquo;All corpses.&rdquo; 
 
The book takes the reader through the legal wranglings of an employer intent on avoiding guilt over safety shortcomings, and the victims&rsquo; families who seek the truth. 

On 5 July, some 3,000 people turned out&nbsp;near the Belgian town of Marcinelle, just south of Charleroi,&nbsp;to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the country&rsquo;s worst coal mining tragedy in history. The event occurred in Bois du Cazier, where on 8 August 1956, 262 miners perished in a fiery inferno caused by an electrical blast from a shaft elevator. 
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The majority at the 5 July event were descendants and friends of 136 Italian miners, who together with the 152 others, died from the fire and subsequent carbon monoxide poisoning when the elevator blocked the flow of fresh air. 
The commemoration also was vitalized by trade union members and the colours of the Belgian socialist union FGTB, as well as their comrades from the Italian trade union, Patronato INCA-CGIL. 
 
The commemoration also included the unveiling of a sculpture marking the tragic event, a bronze globe commissioned by INCA-CGIL and made by Italian artist Antonio Nocera. The sculpture sits in front of the main mine shaft, now a museum, in which miners from 12 different nations died in 1956. 
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A surviving miner in front of Antonio Nacero's sculpture
At Bois du Cazier on the actual day of the 50th anniversary, 8 August, a bell tower clock will ring out 262 times, beginning at 08h00, with the name of each victim read out. At 10h00, flowers will be laid at the monument dedicated to the many accidents occurring at the mine, from 1901 to the 8 August 1956 underground firestorm. At 11h00, a ceremony will occur at the Marcinelle cemetery, and then at 12h30, another commemoration will occur at Bois du Cazier. 
 
The French language book, Tutti Cadavreri, by Lootens, De Roeck and Urbain,&nbsp;was&nbsp;published only on 1 May 2006, but is already in its second printing. It is available from Aden Publishers for &euro;22, and can be ordered by contacting Aden at <a href="mailto:editionsaden@skynet.be">editionsaden@skynet.be</a>, or calling +32 2534 46 61. 
More information on the book can also be found&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aden.be/tutti_cadaveri.html">here</a>. It can be ordered online <a href="http://www.rezolibre.com/librairie/detail.php?article=526 ">here</a>.

Book Depicts Aftermath of Belgium&#039;s Bois du Cazier Mine Tragedy

South African trade unions today, led by national centre COSATU and ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), picketed the Johannesburg offices of BHP Billiton over the company&rsquo;s labour policies in Australia.
BHP Billiton, the world&rsquo;s largest diversified mining, energy and steel company, has been quick to follow the Howard government in Australia in instituting the draconian effects of the country&rsquo;s new WorkChoices law. In resource-rich Western Australia, for example, BHP Billiton is currently stretching state labour statute in order to align with the new federal law by demanding from workers that they sign individual employment contracts rather than adhering to traditional enterprise agreements. 
<img height="100" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; <img height="98" alt="" src="" width="90" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="103" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;&nbsp; 
The COSATU and NUM protest, joined by five other South African unions from 11h00 to 13h00 (GMT) today, 29 June,&nbsp;is in solidarity with week-long protests sponsored by the Australian Council of Trade Union (ACTU) that are currently underway in protest to the WorkChoices law. ICEM affiliate Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) in South Africa also participated in the Johannesburg protest.&nbsp; 
 
In New Zealand, ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing &amp; Manufacturing Union (EPMU), together with other trade unions there, are also showing support to the ACTU by conducting demonstrations at Australian targets in Auckland and Wellington. 
 
Besides the individual work agreements, known as AWAs in Australia, the WorkChoices law places prohibitions on workers from attending union-provided health and safety training, removes protections from unfair dismissals, reduces a union&rsquo;s involvement in dispute resolution, and opens the way for employers to use contract labour and employment agencies in place of full-time, permanent employees. 
 
Earlier this month, the ILO&rsquo;s International Labour Conference in Geneva placed the Howard government&rsquo;s anti-worker labour law on its agenda, specifically on whether or not it adheres to labour rights Convention 98, the Right to Organise and Bargain Collectively Convention, a core convention that Australia ratified in 1973. 
 
The South African protests against BHP Billiton come at the exact time in which Prime Minister John Howard is in China pushing more export of Australian iron ore and natural gas, resources in which BHP Billiton is a leading producer of from Western Australia.

BHP Billiton Targeted in South Africa over Australian Labour Conduct

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A protest in Kiev tomorrow, organised by the Ukrainian Trade Union Federation (FPU), is expected to turn out over 100,000 people. The demonstrations and march, deliberately organised a day before Ukraine&rsquo;s Constitution Day, are an attempt to block further increases by the government on utility tariffs. 
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On 21 June, FPU organised regional demonstrations against the hike in gas and electricity tariffs which brought out 200,000 protestors across Ukraine. In the eastern cities of Donetsk and Kharkiv, 10,000 marchers, displaying FPU banners turned out, demanded a moratorium on utility tariffs, while thousands more protested in the western city of Lviv and the southern city of Kherson. 
 
Ukraine&rsquo;s National Electric Regulatory Commission increased the tariffs for customers on 1 May, and then again on 1 June. The government has scheduled another increase on 1 July that will, in total, result in an 85% increase in less than 60 days.
<img height="138" alt="" src="" width="100" /> 
&nbsp;Alexander Yurkin
FPU, headed by former ICEM Regional Vice President Alexander Yurkin, has promised continued street mobilisations until the government relents. The labour federation sponsored a 24 May demonstration in Kiev that mobilised well over 100,000 citizens. Thus far, Yurkin said, &ldquo;the protests have not produced any reaction from the government.&rdquo; He said public pressure by the labour federation will be escalated until fairness comes to consumers.

Major Protest in Kiev on 27 June Over Unfair Utility Tariff Hikes

Archive

Argentine Paperworkers Strike Smurfit Kappa over Non-Payment of Salary Agreement

ICEM’s Bridgestone Network Meets

Peru’s Government Imposes Wage Deal to Settle Iron Ore Strike

Polish Copper Workers Win Bonuses Based on State Company’s Profits

NOPEF Strike against Oil Service Providers Continues in Norway

Chad’s Oil Workers Target ExxonMobil for Strike Action

French-based Imerys Drops Bombshell on Southwest England

Book Depicts Aftermath of Belgium's Bois du Cazier Mine Tragedy

BHP Billiton Targeted in South Africa over Australian Labour Conduct

Major Protest in Kiev on 27 June Over Unfair Utility Tariff Hikes

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