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	The ICEM, International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), and the International Textile, Garment, &nbsp;Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) on Monday rebuked the government of Egypt over a 26 February court decree there that sentenced labour activist Kamal Abbas to six months imprisonment for comments he made last June at the ILO Conference in Geneva.

	The Helwan Misdemeanour Court sentenced him in absentia for insulting a public official, a former leader of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation. Abbas is General Coordinator of the Center for Trade Unions and Workers&rsquo; Services (CTUWS) of Egypt.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 80px;height: 120px" width="390" />

	ICEM, IMF and ITGLWF demanded that the Egyptian government vacate the sentence and withdraw the charges, and expressed extreme concern on the &ldquo;implications for Freedom of Association as well as Freedom of Expression within the confines of the ILC (International Labour Conference).&rdquo; Read the letter <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Egypt--Judgement%20against%20Kamal%20Abbas.pdf">here</a>.

	Abbas attended last June&rsquo;s ILO conference as a representative of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). &ldquo;We cannot accept this judgement,&rdquo; said ITIC General Secretary Sharan Burrow. &ldquo;Following the Egyptian revolution in February 2011, the ITUC gave the authorities every chance to respect fundamental workers&rsquo; rights. Our patience has run out.&rdquo;

	Abbas said that the six-month prison sentence amounts to return of practices of the ousted regime. During the Mubarak era, Kamal Abbas faced a similar one-year prison term over a confrontation with a state-sponsored union official.

ICEM, IMF, ITGLWF Protest Jail Sentence on Egypt’s Kamal Abbas

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	Sintracarb&oacute;n at Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n is held up as a strong example of positive industrial relations, with tough collective bargaining achieving considerable protections for 4,000 direct employees at Colombia&rsquo;s largest coal mines, and stable communications channels between workers and management.&nbsp; Sintracarb&oacute;n&rsquo;s fight now is over the basic rights of outsourced contract workers at the largest set of coal mines in the world, a joint venture of three multinational mining conglomerates, BHP Billiton, Xstrata and AngloAmerican.

	First adopting a policy to fight outsourcing in 2008, Sintracarb&oacute;n&rsquo;s initial research noted the strategic policies of multinational corporations (MNCs) to increasingly outsource employment and weaken workers&rsquo; job security, social benefits, wage levels, and ability to organise and bargain collectively.&nbsp;

	The research also discovered that over 50% of workers at MNCs operating in Colombia are employed through contract companies, and that these workers had considerably lower standards of employment and no collective agreements.&nbsp; Almost every attempt by Contract or Agency Labour (CAL) workers to reach a collective agreement in Colombia prior to 2008 had been met with mass dismissals.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 201px;height: 135px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	At Cerrej&oacute;n, 6,000 of the total 11,000 workers are precariously employed by contractors.&nbsp; In the 2011 collective bargaining agreement, Sintracarb&oacute;n achieved a clause stating that Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n management is &ldquo;committed to ensuring respect for the unionisation of all workers, including CAL workers.&rdquo;

	The first attempt to organise CAL workers, in 2010, was at the company that provides transportation to the mine workers, SOTRANS.&nbsp; The effort of 500 members of SINTRANS was crushed with mass dismissals and harassment.

	The second attempt was at Chaneme, a company conducting maintenance of heavy machinery. &nbsp;This effort was successful and 50 workers remain under a CBA as members of Sintrachaneme.

	Through Sinaltrainal, a national union, employees of food supplier Aramark won a collective agreement for 200 workers in March 2011.

	Over recent months, mechanics at EPROFQ and ASEOCOLBA also have won struggles and achieved collective agreements.&nbsp; In the case, of EPROFQ the convention was signed after an eight-day strike.

	ICEM affiliates at glass supplier Ross and at Prodeco have also won victories over short-term, casual employment, bringing the total to 1,560 CAL workers organised in Colombia in ICEM sectors.

Sintracarbón, Colombian Unions Make Big Strides in Organising Against Outsourcing

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	The 20 February shooting at strikers &ndash; mainly women &ndash; of the KaoWay Sports Ltd. footwear factory in Bavet, Svey Rieng province, Cambodia, appears to have been committed by the governor of Bavet region, Chhouk Bandith. Three women were shot and seriously wounded after a man dressed in police-style khakis got out of a vehicle and began firing at people.

	The factory produces shoes primarily for the German apparel company Puma. According to ITGLWF affiliate, the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers&rsquo; Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), thousands of the 6,000 employed at the factory engaged in strike action on 17-18 February. When strikes resumed on 20 February, Chhouk Bandith allegedly jumped out of a Lexus 470 with a bodyguard and a policeman upon exiting the factory and fired shots from a high-power gun equipped with silencer at strikers.

	After firing, he fled in a Toyota Camry and truckloads of police moved in to quell disbelieving and angry strikers. Police have questioned Chhouk Bandith, and C.CAWDU believes he was held for three days, but has since been released.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 130px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	Chhouk Bandith

	The entire incident, occurring about 09h00, was captured by a KaoWay factory security camera. Puma has been conducting its own investigation since the outset, together with an NGO.&nbsp;

	Buot Chinda, 21, was shot through the chest with bullets that narrowly missed her heart and severely punctured her lung. She was near death, but now is in stable but serious condition at a Phnom Penh hospital. The two other women who were shot and injured are Keo Neth, 18, and Nuth Sakhorn, 23.&nbsp;

	A senior ILO official, who monitors a programme called Better Factories Cambodia, said in press comments, &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t look good for Cambodia when this type of violence is concerned.&rdquo;

	Puma&rsquo;s shoe workers, employed by Taiwanese-based KaoWay, were striking over better transport and food allowances, and better pay and conditions overall. Due to the industrial action &ndash; and Puma&rsquo;s rapid response to the random violence &ndash; the strike has ended and all workers&rsquo; demands have been met in full.

	The strike and shootings had a different scenario at a separate Cambodian dispute, this one at Singapore-based Medtecs, a health textiles and apparel maker located in Kampong Siem district, some 125 kilometres from Bavet. While 2,000 strikers pelted the factory with rocks, police at the scene were unarmed and at stand-down because of the KaoWay shootings.

	The Medtecs strike was over the company failing to live up to decisions handed down by a binding Arbitration Council. It has been resolved due to the strike action.

Cambodian Public Official Accused in Shooting of Footwear Strikers

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	Trade unions from around the world agree on plans to establish IndustriALL Global Union in June 2012, a new global union to represent workers in manufacturing, energy,&nbsp;mining,&nbsp;and textile sectors at the global level.

	Meeting at the ILO in Geneva on 29 February, more than 200 trade union leaders from around the world spoke of the serious challenges working people face in the current political and economic climate. Having greater strength and building power across the supply chain at the global level is the motivating force for the creation of the new global union.

	The new organization will bring together affiliates of International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM), the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF), and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF).

	The joint executive committee meeting of the ICEM, ITGLWF and IMF discussed the draft Statutes and Action Plan for the new organization and agreed on the proposed new name IndustriALL and logo.

	The joint meeting noted the proposed candidates for the political leadership of the new organization. The importance of including women in both the political leadership and representative structures of the new global union was argued for and included in the proposed Statutes.

	A founding Congress of the new organization will take place in Copenhagen, 18-20 June 2012. The proposed name, Statutes and Action Plan will be decided on at the founding Congress.

IndustriALL Name of New Global Union Federation

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	ICEM Colombia Coordinator Carlos Bustos reports that a two-day seminar of young trade unionists from the three Global Union Federations (GUFs) that next month will form IndustriALL came to important conclusions last week. The participation of 20 trade unionists under the age of 30 brought young men and women together from throughout Colombia on 10-11 May.

	Participating unions included International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF)affiliates Utramicol and Fetramecol, and Martina Sanguinetti of the Uruguayan Metalworkers (UNTMRA). Also participating were representatives of ICEM, and CUT and CTC national labour centres.

	The meeting sought to find ways to increase the active participation of youth. A key issue for participants was not for them to be consulted more, but to be centrally involved in decision-making and to be involved and represented at all levels inside unions. This includes deciding the politics and the future of the Colombian trade union movement.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" height="146" src="" width="180" />&nbsp;

	Carlos Bustos

	A commitment was reached to establish a permanent network for communication and information.

	The joint youth project of the three GUFs that also included the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) and was funded by the Finnish Solidarity Organisation, SASK. This project will connect similar processes that are ongoing in Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, and Nicaragua with that in Colombia.

	ICEM project coordinator Patricio Sambonino evaluated the two-day Colombian seminar, saluting the important contribution and participation of the young trade unionists, moving towards generational change for the movement.

Young Colombian Trade Unionists of ICEM, ITGLWF, IMF Connect

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	The ICEM-affiliated Peruvian Federation of Mine and Metal Workers, FNTMMSP, achieved a significant legislative victory on 12 May that creates a pension fund for miners, funded by corporate profits and worker contributions.

	The law had been passed by the country&rsquo;s Senate nine months ago, but the government had not approved regulations for its implementation until now, two days prior to a planned two-day national strike.

	FNTMMSP General Secretary Luis Castillo announced the victory and called off the strike. The 75,000-member FNTMMSP had led the campaign for the last four years, against strong conservative forces in government and industry. The four-year campaign has included numerous mobilisations, marches, and three national strikes.

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	Supreme Decree DS 006-2012-TR sets out that the fund will be funded with 0.5% of the corporate annual income of the mining, metal, steel industries, plus 0.5% workers&rsquo; monthly gross salaries. The benefits cannot be used for any other benefit than miners&rsquo; pensions.

	FNTMMSP reports that the primary beneficiaries of the new law will be mine and metal workers from both primary employers and outsourced contractors.

	The mineworkers&rsquo; struggle now continues in other areas, including modification of the legislation on utilities.

	Peru is the world&rsquo;s second largest producer of copper and silver, and is a major producer of gold, zinc, and tin. A massive 60% of the country&rsquo;s export revenue comes from mining.

Peru’s Mineworkers Achieve Legislative Victory on Pensions, Avoid Strike

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	By the slimmest of vote margins, 2,000 UK petrol-tanker drivers represented by Unite the Union voted to accept a conciliation service&rsquo;s proposal, ending a months-long dispute between drivers and seven contract carriers involving work terms and conditions, including safety and subcontracting.

	The dispute, dating back to February, drove motorists into fuel-hoarding and panic-buying hysteria, mostly triggered by the over-reaction of Prime Minister David Cameron&rsquo;s government. The hysteria included a declaration that 1,400 British military personnel were being trained to deliver fuel oil to retail outlets as a strike precaution.

	An accumulated consultative ballot that was counted on 11 May found that 51% of the 69% of drivers who voted accepted the mediated proposal by UK&rsquo;s Advisory, Conciliation, and Mediation Services (ACAS) after eight days of non-stop bargaining. The vote was a re-ballot of one taken in March following concerns that some drivers were unable to vote.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 130px;height: 130px" width="390" />

	The ACAS-brokered agreement did introduce an industry-wide accreditation system called &ldquo;Passport,&rdquo; which must promptly be implemented to cover health, safety and training. One major concern to drivers was companies using sub-contract workers to deliver fuel, so creation of minimum industry-wide standards is expected to serve as deterrent.

	Unite warned that the overall narrow &ldquo;yes&rdquo; vote left no room for employer complacency. The union said the dispute uncovered deep-seated problems in UK&rsquo;s petrol supply, exacerbated by a mantra of &ldquo;profits before stability.&rdquo;

	&ldquo;This narrow vote in favour lifts the threat of strike action,&rdquo; said Unite Assistant General Secretary Diana Holland, &ldquo;but leaves the companies with no room for complacency. We look forward to the rapid implementation of the ACAS proposals which include an industry-wide &lsquo;Passport&rsquo;.&rdquo;

	Now, Unite, the seven oil companies, UK&rsquo;s Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and the Department for Energy, Environment and Climate Change &ndash; the government entity that threatened to break a strike with the military &ndash; must begin implementation of the &ldquo;Passport&rdquo; scheme by 1 June.

	The seven fuel distribution companies involved include the largest Hoyer, with 500 drivers, and Wincanton, DHL, BP, Norbert Dentressangle, JW Sucklings and Turners. Majorities of drivers at DHL, Wincanton, Hoyer, and Turners voted against the proposals, while those at BP, Norbert Dentressangle, and JW Sucklings voted in favour. The accumulated vote was 737 for, 711 against.

	The 2,000 drivers deliver 90% of UK&rsquo;s refined fuel oil products to thousands of retail petrol stations.

UK Truck Drivers Agree to Terms with Seven Fuel Distributing Companies

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	The 26th World Congress of the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF) is now being held in Geneva 15-18 May. A major focus of the Congress is a united condemnation of the appalling behaviour of Swiss-based Nestl&eacute;, the largest food company in the world.

	The IUF has a longstanding campaign for the rights of workers throughout Nestl&eacute;&rsquo;s global facilities. Great victories have been won in Pakistan and Indonesia, but serious rights abuses of Nestl&eacute; workers in those countries continue, as they do other countries.

	This Congress will see affiliates, representing a combined 2.6 million trade union members, formulate a new plan of action to move Nestl&eacute; to act responsibly. The IUF Nespressure Campaign highlights the fast-growing profits of the market leader, CHF 110 billion in sales in 2011, with Nespresso one of the most profitable parts of the company. But even as profits soar for the company, management increases the pressure on its workers everywhere. Wages, conditions, and rights of Nestl&eacute; employees are constantly squeezed.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 120px" width="390">&nbsp;

	A new part of the global campaign will be launched at this week&rsquo;s Ccongress, and serves as a clear example of Nestl&eacute;&rsquo;s disregard for workers&rsquo; core labour rights. The &ldquo;We are the 53!&rdquo; campaign focuses on the vindictive mass-dismissal of 53 workers at a Nescaf&eacute; factory in Panjang, Indonesia. Those workers were sacked because they organised and attempted to assert their rights.

	The 53 are members of IUF affiliate SBNIP there and the union itself have struggled for years for the right to bargain collectively. When the bargaining deadlock forced workers to strike last year, management signed an agreement with the SBNIP to end the strike and subsequently promptly sacked the 53 key union activists.

	Congress will establish a Nestl&eacute; Panjang Justice Fund to assist the workers and their families who now face hardship because of Nestl&eacute;&rsquo;s disturbing actions.

	See more information, and support the online campaign at <a href="http://www.iuf.org/nespressure/en/">IUF&rsquo;s Nespressure website</a>&nbsp;here.

IUF Congress in Geneva Condemns Nestlé

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	From International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF)

	Workers making Olympic sportswear for London 2012 for top brands and high street names including adidas and Next are being paid poverty wages, forced to work excessive overtime and threatened with instant dismissal if they complain about working conditions, according to a recently released report Play Fair 2012 campaign.

	The report, <a href="http://www.itglwf.org/documents/Workers_in_Olympics_Supply_Factories_Human_Rights_25412.pdf">Fair Games? Human Rights of Workers in Olympic 2012 Supplier Factories</a>, uncovers a range of abuses, providing more evidence to increase the pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to act to improve the working conditions in Olympic supply chains in the run up to Rio 2016, says Play Fair.

	Last autumn, researchers working on behalf of Play Fair campaign, which includes the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) and the Clean Clothes Campaign, visited ten factories &ndash; eight of which were producing Olympic goods &ndash; in China, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Across the three countries they talked to 175 workers about their working conditions.

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	The &ldquo;Fair Games?&rdquo; report contains many examples where workers making Olympic goods have been badly treated, including:

	&bull; In China, workers at a factory in the Guangdong Province which produces sportswear for Adidas were contracted to work in two separate locations 200km apart so lived in fear of suddenly being sent miles from home for their jobs.

	&bull; Workers at the same Amerseas Enterprises Factory also complained of regularly having to do overtime in excess of the legal minimum (with working hours from 8am to 10pm not uncommon even at less busy times) and of not being able to wear the necessary safety masks to protect against dust because of unrealistic production targets.

	&bull; In the Philippines, workers complained of pay rates so low that they were forced to pawn their ATM cards to loan sharks for &lsquo;pay day loans&rsquo; to see them through the month. Workers in the factories producing for Adidas said they were also told when they started that overtime was compulsory.

	&bull; In Sri Lanka, workers also said that their pay was not enough to meet their basic needs &ndash; those questioned said they earned a maximum of LKR 25,000 a month (&pound;122), little more than half the country&rsquo;s living wage of LKR 45,000 (&pound;220).

	&bull; Workers at the Next Manufacturing factory in Sri Lanka reported how the company used an external agent to hire short-term temporary workers. The agent made the workers do double shifts each day &ndash; after completing a full shift plus overtime at Next, they were transferred to another factory where they had to work until 2.30am. The next morning they had to report for their 8am shift at Next.

	&bull; There were no unions permitted in any of the factories and in China, workers said that anyone talking to colleagues about the need to improve factory conditions would be dismissed instantly.

	Research undertaken by Play Fair camping earlier this year &ndash; which found evidence of child labour, excessive hours, poverty pay and dangerous working conditions in Chinese factories producing pin badges and London 2012 mascots &ndash; the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) agreed to get tougher with the factories in its various supply chains.

	This included making information about employment rights available in Chinese and establishing a Chinese language hotline so that workers could complain about ill treatment. The &ldquo;Fair Games?&rdquo; report shows that the abuse of workers in Olympic supply chains was also happening in other countries.

	To illustrate the extent of the problem and to convince the IOC that it needs to do more to improve the treatment of workers making goods for the next Games in Brazil, UK&rsquo;s Trades Union Congress (TUC) has submitted a number of complaints to LOCOG on behalf of the workers from China and the Philippines who are featured in the report.

	Klaus Priegnitz, General Secretary of the ITGLWF, which wrote the report, said: &ldquo;Prior to the Beijing Olympics Play Fair called on companies to take action to ensure the human rights of all workers in their supply chains were respected.

	&ldquo;Four years on we see that the denial of the right to freedom of association, the payment of poverty wages and the widespread use of precarious work is still the norm. Companies need to step up their game and work with unions to support the development of mature systems of industrial relations in their supplier factories.&rdquo;

ITGLWF Report Outlines Abuses of Workers Preparing Olympic 2012 Goods

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	Trade unions in the Czech Republic are mobilising for a large scale manifestation against the austerity measures of the right-wing government of Prime Minister Petr Necas, which aims to make workers pay for the crisis. The pressure is bringing the government close to collapse.

	On 22 May in Wenceslas Square in the centre of Prague, the unions will assemble tens of thousands of workers to manifest and then march through the capital. The unions are threatening a general strike if demands are not met. Top of the list of demands is for the government to postpone planned pension cuts until the economy recovers and a better assessment can occur.

	Further issues put on the table by 30 unions, united under the umbrella of International Trade Union Congress-affiliated CMKOS, include drawing money from the European Union to stimulate growth, and revision of the law on the right to strike.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 311px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	The enormous participation of 120,000 people at a 21 April demonstration against government reforms gave a strong mandate to organisers to continue the campaign.

	The &ldquo;STOP the Government&rdquo; platform includes 75 civil society organisations in partnership with CMKOS, and the campaign is running a permanent information tent in center Prague with public debates each evening with respected guests presenting economic alternatives to austerity.

	Protesters also plan to Occupy government ministries that are proposing damaging social cuts.

	Jaroslav Zavadil, head of CMKOS, tabled union demands in tripartite meetings with government. Employer representatives also want the government to follow EU funding and pro-growth measures. The next tripartite meeting is planned for 4 June, meetings that the unions will boycott if their demands have not been met.

	The Necas government, now half-way through its four-year term wants to introduce a second pillar pension system that will be completely privatised.

Czech Unions to Take Mass Action Against Government Austerity on 22 May

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