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An interim agreement has been reached to end a strike by 700 US paper workers at the Ecusta plant owned by Purico Ltd. The breakthrough follows global trade union pressure on the company. 
 
The workers ratified the interim agreement by an overwhelming margin on November 13. Negotiated by their union, PACE, the deal provides for continuation of the contract (collective agreement) that expired on October 1. Negotiations for a new labour agreement continue. 
 
The Ecusta plant in Brevard, North Carolina, produces paper for tobacco products, financial forms and bibles. It is the world's third largest supplier of tobacco papers. 
 
The strike began on October 15. PACE's campaign is backed by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and by Britain's Graphical, Paper and Media Union (GPMU). Both PACE and the GPMU are ICEM affiliates. 
 
Purico is controlled by Nat Puri, who resides in the United Kingdom. The company had been demanding over 70 million US dollars' worth of concessions from the Ecusta workers. But the new interim agreement contains no such give-backs. 
 
&quot;This is a major victory for the union, and shows what happens when workers stick together,&quot; said PACE Region Four Vice-President Robert Smith.

Breakthrough in US Purico Paper Dispute

A &quot;constructive dialogue&quot; has been launched between asbestos multinational Cape plc and British lawyers acting for victims of the company's South African operations. 
 
This is the first hint of progress in the long battle to win compensation for the South Africans. 
 
Cape and the victims' English solicitors, Leigh Day &amp; Co, have announced that &quot;the case management hearing (at which the court is to give directions for the trial in April 2002) scheduled to commence on 5th November 2001, has been postponed for 14 days as the parties wish to engage in constructive dialogue. Both parties believe this will be a positive step forward.&quot; 
 
This move comes just days after a management shake-up at Cape. On 1 November, the Montpellier Group increased their stake to 29.9 percent, making them Cape's biggest shareholder. Michael Langdon, the previous Chairman of Cape, then stood down and was replaced by Montpellier's Managing Director, Paul Sellars. 
 
As well as fighting the case through the English courts, the asbestos victims have been backed by a number of campaigning organisations, including the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), its South African affiliate the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and ICEM-affiliated British unions. 
 
Cape mined asbestos in South Africa for almost a century. &quot;Children were employed, unprotected, in the most hazardous tasks of sorting asbestos with their bare hands and trampling it with their bare feet,&quot; recalled ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in letters last month to Montpellier and other major shareholders. &quot;Due to the atrocious conditions at the mines and mills, thousands of South Africans developed the fatal asbestos cancer, mesothelioma, and the debilitating disease of asbestosis.&quot;

Cape plc Opens Talks With South African Asbestos Victims

Asbestos multinational Cape plc should settle immediately, out of court, with the victims of the company's operations in South Africa during the apartheid era. 
 
So says the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) in letters to Cape's four main shareholders. 
 
Cape and its shareholders should &quot;offer a just and equitable settlement to the claimants now,&quot; ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs urges in the letters to Rutland Trust plc, Montpellier Group plc, Fidelity Investment International and M &amp; G Investment Management. Like Cape itself, these four big shareholders are based in England. 
 
Cape took full advantage of the apartheid system to exploit thousands of workers at its asbestos mines and mills in South Africa, Higgs writes. &quot;Children were employed, unprotected, in the most hazardous tasks of sorting asbestos with their bare hands and trampling it with their bare feet. Due to the atrocious conditions at the mines and mills, thousands of South Africans developed the fatal asbestos cancer, mesothelioma, and the debilitating disease of asbestosis.&quot; 
 
Cape closed its British asbestos factory in 1968, due to the high incidence of asbestos-related diseases. But it kept its South African operation running for another decade after that, and lobbied the apartheid regime to suppress information about the health risks. 
 
While Cape has paid compensation to British former asbestos workers, no similar provision has been made for the South African victims. After protracted legal wrangling, the South Africans eventually won the right to pursue their claim through the English courts, and the case is now scheduled for trial in April 2002. 
 
However, that will be too late for many of the South African victims. Since the legal action started, more than 300 of them have died. Many others are seriously ill.

Compensate South African Victims, Cape plc Told

Five trade union leaders have been arrested in Colombia - apparently for launching a strike against terror. All five are active in the Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera (USO), a union federation organising mainly in the oil sector. 
 
An arrest warrant has reportedly also been issued for USO President Hernando Hern&aacute;ndez. 
 
The five detained USO leaders are Edgar Mojica, chairman of its Bogot&aacute; area; Ram&oacute;n Rangel, of its human rights and peace committee; Jairo Calder&oacute;n, former chairman of its Barranca area; Luis Viana and Alonso Mart&iacute;nez. The reasons for their arrest are unclear, but seem to be connected with a strike in Colombia's oil industry last Friday. The strike was a protest over the terror campaigns being waged against Colombian trade unionists. 
 
The 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) has called for the immediate release of the detained trade unionists. &quot;We are deeply concerned about the detention of our colleagues and about the threat to their physical well-being,&quot; writes ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in a fax to Colombia's President Andr&eacute;s Pastrana. &quot;The arbitrary detention of these trade union brothers is an attack on human rights and on the trade union freedoms enshrined in the Conventions of the UN's International Labour Organisation.&quot; 
 
Colombia is the world's most dangerous country for trade unionists. Last year, says the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), no less than 153 of the 209 trade unionists assassinated worldwide were in Colombia. 
 
Many other Colombian trade unionists and their families are subject to death threats and other harassment, and some have &quot;disappeared&quot;. 
 
Almost all the murders of trade unionists in Colombia have gone unexplained and unpunished.

Colombian Oil Union Leaders Arrested for Strike Against Terror

Three leaders of Pakistan's electricity workers have been released by the country's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). 
 
They had been arrested this Monday during a violent raid by police and FIA agents on the headquarters of the Pakistan WAPDA Labour Union (PWLU) in Gujrat. WAPDA is the Pakistani power utility, currently facing privatisation plans. 
 
The three union leaders - PWLU President Choudhry Riaz Ahmed, General Secretary Pirzad Imtiaz Syed and Assistant General Secretary Syed Zia Ullah Azam - are said to be in safety. No further details are known at present. 
 
This was the second FIA assault on the PWLU headquarters within five months. 
 
At the global level, the PWLU is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
On Monday, the ICEM and its affiliates worldwide protested to Pakistani President Pervez Mosharraf over the arrests and demanded the union leaders' immediate and unconditional release.

Pakistani Power Workers&#039; Union Leaders Freed

Unions have launched an international campaign to end a five-month lock-out by Taiwanese-owned Continental Carbon at its Ponca City plant in the US state of Oklahoma. 
 
The locked-out Ponca City workers are members of the American industrial union PACE, which is running the campaign in conjunction with the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers Unions (ICEM). Major support is coming from Taiwan's Confederation of Industrial Trade Unions (CITU) and the Taiwan Petroleum Workers' Union (TPWU). PACE and the TPWU are both ICEM affiliates. The CITU groups 18 major Taiwanese industrial unions, including the TPWU. 
 
The China Synthetic Rubber Company (CSRB) and the Taiwan Cement Corporation own Continental Carbon, which produces carbon black for the tyre industry. Both Taiwanese companies are controlled by the Koo Group, a global financial empire owned by the Koo family and valued at US$ 53 billion. 
 
&quot;We will not stand back and watch while Continental Carbon tramples on the internationally recognised rights of workers in the United States,&quot; stated Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary. &quot;We call upon Continental Carbon to adhere to International Labour Organisation conventions and bargain fairly with its employees.&quot; 
 
The UN's International Labour Organisation is where the world's governments, employers and unions adopt global standards on trade union rights and other labour issues. 
 
On 5 October, PACE met Huang Ching-Hsien, President of both the TPWU and the CITU. 
 
&quot;As you remain steadfast in your struggle to win a fair contract, you may do so knowing that you have the unwavering support of Taiwanese workers,&quot; Huang told PACE President Boyd Young. &quot;We deplore the actions of the CSRB and the Koo family in permitting their American subsidiary to negotiate in bad faith and engage in union-busting.&quot; 
 
Continental Carbon is seeking a rash of concessions from its American workers. These include wage cuts, increases of 300 - 500% in worker contributions to health care insurance, elimination of retiree health insurance, cuts in vacation pay and slashing of workers' overtime pay, as well as several changes in the workers' contract [collective agreement]. Taken together, these proposed concessions would cost each worker $15,000-20,000 per year. 
 
 
 
DIRTY TRICK 
 
One of the company's more egregious proposals is the elimination of pay for the time that workers spend in the bathhouse following each shift. Working in carbon black is a mucky, hazardous job and at the end of a shift workers are dirty from head to toe, much like coal miners. PACE estimates that cutting the bathhouse pay alone will cost workers about 4000 dollars a year. 
 
Continental Carbon workers lost their health insurance as a result of the lock-out, which began without warning on 8 May. There is no universal health coverage in the US, and those workers who have suffered a heart attack, stroke and other illnesses since the lock-out began cannot afford to pay for much-needed medicine and health care. In addition, these workers lost their unemployment benefits in early October. 
 
&quot;Our members worked hard to make Continental Carbon successful and they were rewarded by being locked out of their jobs,&quot; said Boyd Young, &quot;Continental Carbon's faithful employees do not deserve such treatment. We call upon the Koo family to end this unjust lockout.&quot;

Continental Carbon Faces World Union Lobby Over US Lockout

Gustavo Soler, President of the El Paso section of the energy workers' union Sintramienerg&eacute;tica, has been murdered in Colombia. 
 
His death adds one more name to the long list of Colombians slain for defending workers' rights. 
 
Labour activists are among the most frequent targets for assassination in Colombia - mainly by right-wing death squads, and sometimes also by guerrilla movements. 
 
Sintramienerg&eacute;tica seems to have been singled out for particular attention. 
 
In a protest letter to Colombia's President Andr&eacute;s Pastrana today, Fred Higgs points out that in the El Paso-Cesar area alone, five Sintramienerg&eacute;tica activists have been murdered this year. This is &quot;a real policy of extermination directed against the leadership of Sintramienerg&eacute;tica,&quot; writes Higgs, who is the General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Amnesty International has described attacks on trade unionists in Colombia as &quot;widespread and systematic.&quot; 
 
Human rights campaigners inside the country allege that the death squads are linked to the Colombian military. 
 
Colombia is far and away the most dangerous country in which to be a trade unionist, according to the 2001 trade union rights survey just published by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). 
 
Last year, the ICFTU says, no less than 153 of the 209 trade unionists assassinated worldwide were in Colombia. 
 
Many other Colombian trade unionists and their families are subject to death threats and other harassment, and some have &quot;disappeared&quot;. 
 
Almost all the murders of trade unionists in Colombia have gone unexplained and unpunished. 
 
&quot;It is inadmissible that crimes of this kind keep on happening and the perpetrators keep on escaping punishment,&quot; Higgs tells President Pastrana. &quot;It is the responsibility of your Government and of your country's Supreme Court of Justice to track down and punish the murderers

Another Colombian Union Leader Murdered

Mining giant Anglo American stands accused of reneging on a commitment to make anti-retroviral drugs available to all its South African workers. 
 
Instead, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) says, Anglo now plans to give preferential treatment to &quot;senior employees&quot; - apparently because the company thinks that providing anti-retrovirals throughout its workforce would be too expensive. 
 
The NUM finds this policy &quot;inherently racist and discriminatory, with beneficiaries of the scheme being, in the main, white workers and the black elite. The foot soldiers who generate wealth in the bowels of the earth are excluded.&quot; 
 
Both the NUM and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) have expressed &quot;dismay&quot; over Anglo's decision. 
 
When Anglo originally announced that it would make anti-retrovirals available to all its workers, COSATU hailed the policy as a breakthrough. However, the NUM, which is a COSATU affiliate, saw the move by Anglo as a publicity gimmick. 
 
&quot;The decision to limit provision of anti-AIDS drugs has vindicated the NUM's position,&quot; say COSATU and the NUM in a joint statement. Anglo's aboutface is &quot;a betrayal of the workers who produce the company's profits,&quot; the unions insist. &quot;Anglo has once again demonstrated that the company cares more for profits than workers' life.&quot; 
 
The NUM sees Anglo's policy reversal as a breach of the national agreement recently signed between the union and South Africa's mining employers. 
 
COSATU and the NUM &quot;call on the company to reverse its decision and provide anti AIDS drugs to all its workers. The NUM will engage the company in the coming days and will consider the necessary steps that may lead to a strike if the Anglo does not reverse the decision. COSATU will support the NUM in its attempts to reverse the decision.&quot; 
 
At the global level, the NUM is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

Anglo-American Called Racist After AIDS Drug &#039;Betrayal&#039;

Swiss unions have taken mining giant Glencore to task over the anti-union practices of its Peruvian company Iscaycruz S.A. 
 
Iscaycruz is trying to destroy a union created by its workers this May, the Swiss trade union confederation USS/SGB says. 
 
The USS has sent a protest letter to Swiss-headquartered Glencore International AG on behalf of all of Switzerland's trade unions, including the industrial and construction workers' SIB/GBI. At the global level, the SIB is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The Swiss unions say their Peruvian colleagues were threatened with dismissal if they did not resign from their union, the FNTMMSP. After intimidating a number of workers into leaving the union, the company this August applied to have the FNTMMSP derecognised - on the grounds that it no longer had the legally required number of members for collective bargaining! 
 
The USS is pressing Glencore to ensure that its Peruvian company respects &quot;the right of workers to establish and to join trade union organisations ...; the right to collective bargaining; the right not to be dismissed without due cause.&quot; 
 
A copy of the letter has gone to the Swiss Secretary of State for the Economy, and the USS says it will raise the matter with the government if Glencore does not meet its demands.

Glencore Lambasted Over Anti-Unionism in Peru

For the first time ever, a Canadian union has organised workers on an offshore oil platform. 
 
The breakthrough was announced yesterday by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP). At the global level, the CEP is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The vote by workers on the Hibernia oil platform, off the coast of Newfoundland, sets an important precedent. 
 
As the neighbouring USA seeks new energy supplies, oil and gas are becoming one of Canada's biggest industries. So far based mainly on oil sands, where union organisation is already significant, Canadian oil production has rapidly expanded offshore. In 2000, about 89,000 people were directly employed in Canada's upstream crude oil and gas industry. 
 
The CEP has spent the last four years supporting efforts to bring union protection to the nearly 400 drillers, roughnecks, nurses, cooks and others who work aboard the Hibernia platform, more than 315 kilometres out in the ocean. 
 
&quot;I hope these are the first of many offshore oil workers - who face hazardous and stressful working conditions on the high seas - to benefit from the protection of a union,&quot; said CEP President Brian Payne. The victory opens the door for the CEP to start unionising other offshore platforms, he stated. 
 
&quot;The employer used every trick in the book to try to keep the union out,&quot; Payne said. But he noted that the organising process should be more efficient in future, after action by the Newfoundland labour minister involving round-table discussions with CEP participation.

CEP Organises First Offshore Workers in North America

Archive

Breakthrough in US Purico Paper Dispute

Cape plc Opens Talks With South African Asbestos Victims

Compensate South African Victims, Cape plc Told

Colombian Oil Union Leaders Arrested for Strike Against Terror

Pakistani Power Workers' Union Leaders Freed

Continental Carbon Faces World Union Lobby Over US Lockout

Another Colombian Union Leader Murdered

Anglo-American Called Racist After AIDS Drug 'Betrayal'

Glencore Lambasted Over Anti-Unionism in Peru

CEP Organises First Offshore Workers in North America

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